Angel's Prayer
by Runandra
Summary: Sequel to 1001 Nights. Five years had passed since Kuroro's and Kurapika's parting in the Kuruta village, but a new figure appeared to mess up the transient peace and fragile equilibrium established between them. EXTRA Christmas chapter added.
1. Prologue

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own HunterxHunter, but I own 1001 Nights fanfiction! Nyahaha XD _

_**Introduction:**__ Five years had passed since Kuroro and Kurapika restarted their respective lives, away from each other. Five years of absence of the other's company, and that absence was about to be put to an end._

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* * *

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_**PROLOGUE**_

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* * *

**_

The children huddled as closely as they could. Though the cage was spacious enough for all of them to sprawl their legs, they preferred the comfort of each other's warmth in the cold cage. After all, they were all in the same boat—kidnapped children whose fates were still hanging uncertainly. They had no idea on what would happen to them, let alone making plans to escape. They were _children_, after all. The oldest among them was a girl aged around 15, and the oldest boy was only 12 or 13 years old.

The oldest girl had the youngest child in her arms, trying to comfort the crying two-years-old toddler while reining her fear and insecurity as well. She looked around the desolate cage. Everyone had the same expression on their faces; horror, loneliness, sorrow, homesickness, fear and other negative emotions. She could practically smell the despondency hanging thickly in the cage. However, one particular boy caught her eyes.

The boy was pretty, and she swore that he could pass as a girl. His golden hair hung delicately around his face, framing his childish round visage like a porcelain doll. His dark eyes were staring to a certain spot, and he was talking to himself. Yes, she was certain that he was talking to nobody in particular, but that was not the reason of her interest. The boy was calm and collected; no sense of fear, only slight apprehension and nervousness.

He seemed like he was just having a trip to an unknown place—which was true in a sense—while ignoring the fact that they were kidnapped by some bad guys.

"Are you sure this is okay?" The boy spoke again to nobody in particular as he cocked his head sideways. His face looked so serious as if he was listening to an adult talking to him.

All the children looked at him with bewilderment clear in their horror-stricken face.

"But they took my necklace!" He protested, speaking only to the empty space before him.

The children started giving each other suspicious and anxious looks. They had no idea on how to deal with that seemingly insane four-years-old. One little girl about six-years-old spoke with a voice that was too loud:

"Is he crazy?"

Her question/statement echoed in the deafening silence of the cage, but nobody answered her. The little 'crazy' boy, however, did lower his voice and reduced his talking-to-himself into bare whispers. His face betrayed a bit of embarrassment and shame as he continued his monologue.

"Imaginary friends, perhaps...?" The oldest girl responded rather absentmindedly.

Her mother did tell her that some children; especially those at age four, played with some invisible friends that stemmed from their own imagination, and that children with imaginary friends tended to be more intelligence than their peers. Perhaps the boy was such case? Trying to ignore the pint-sized 'anomaly' in the ragtag group of smuggled children, the oldest girl returned to her self-proclaimed task as the comforter of the distraught children; soothing them as best as her 15-years-old self could.

Little did she know that the little 'anomaly' boy was dealing with something beyond imaginary friends.

* * *

At one random day each year, he would visit that place. It was a very brief visit—he was simply being there, looking at the earth mound on the ground silently before he went away without sparing one single word. It had been a routine he repeated for the past six years since the first time the mound was built there.

The water of the lake lapped most gently, as if trying to soothe the raven-haired man. There was almost no wind, and the forest was as still as death itself. There were no sounds of crickets or birds, no faint whispers of the wind. It was overwhelmingly quiet and time seemed to have stopped, just like the man who stood as motionless as a stone statue, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his pants.

Kuroro Lucifer closed his eyes and in the instant he did so, flash of images assaulted his mind's eyes. Vivid images of a certain tragic scene, as clear as glass, were replayed over and over again like a broken record in his mind.

_Kuroro...I want to hear it...Just once..._

_Her voice thinning out, as faint as the wind itself. Her hand that was touching his cheek disintegrated into fine sands. Her body melting into nothingness. That longing expression on her face, forever shadowing other expressions she had ever given him. Those pleading eyes. The frail sands escaping his clutches. The unnerving feeling of the sands of her remnants brushing against his skin. The fine grains swept away by the wind and swallowed by the lake._

Kuroro frowned deeply as he willingly remembered every single detail of that day. It was not easy. It was not pleasant. Yet it was not enough a punishment for him.

"Torturing your self again?"

A voice that sounded as ancient as the Earth itself spoke from behind him. Kuroro pried open his eyes and instantly put on his mask of indifference. With slight turn of his head, Kuroro caught a glimpse of a hunched-back old woman strolling towards him. He wondered how the wizened old woman managed to live for so long. She looked so ancient yet so sturdy, like an immovable stone wall.

Kuroro had not bothered to reply Hatsubaba's remark. He merely gave her a cool glance, before returning his attention to the cold earthen mound. Hatsubaba sauntered to his side and paid her respect to the deceased by planting one sandalwood incense stick on the mound. She offered a silent prayer, her mouths moving rapidly while uttering a string of words that were completely alien even to Kuroro.

"Five years, Kuroro." Hatsubaba suddenly said.

Kuroro remained mute.

"For five years you keep visiting this place at least once a year. So why, pray tell, do you still refuse to take the offer?" The wizened old woman asked huskily.

"Surely you are not foolish enough to not be able to deduce my reason?" He merely responded without answering her, his voice cold and detached from emotions.

Hatsubaba stood up and turned to regard him with a pointed look of mild irritation and slight pity. She had been watching him going back and forth to Ishtar's grave, the boy—yes, he would always be 'the boy' for her—saying nothing and doing nothing in front of the small mound of earth. It was a scene that pinched her heart. Hatsubaba had known Kuroro since the first time he had been adopted by Ishtar; she had been his personal doctor until he finally decided to form the Genei Ryodan and went out of the Ryuusei-gai. While Ishtar had openly expressed herself as his surrogate mother (though he had more often than not ignore it with his best effort), Hatsubaba secretly thought of him as her grandson—silly as it might sound.

Despite so, she had never felt him so distant and unreachable before. It was as if he had set up an even thicker, more impenetrable wall between him and the world surrounding him. She had no idea on why he was isolating himself so much, and he would not talk about it.

Then again, she had rarely been in contact with him. She had not known how Kuroro really was outside the Ryuusei-gai, away from her watchful eyes. She was well aware of his peerless abilities of assuming many personalities as if he was dancing in a masquerade party. The question was: what was his truest personality? Hatsubaba had no idea. She suspected that if there was anyone who would know the answer to her question, it would be only one particular person.

"You are Ishtar's only successor." She reasoned.

Kuroro gave a very faint humourless snort; as if he had dryly anticipated that argument.

"The only things she ever taught me were combat and survival skills." He coldly told the old woman. "You are asking the wrong person."

"Then you go find someone to take her role. That is the least you can do as her heir." The witch-doctor told him pointedly, feeling cross and tired of the boy's evasive game.

Kuroro almost laughed out loud sarcastically at Hatsubaba's words, but out of respect to her he refrained himself from doing so. Someone else to take over Ishtar's role? Impossible. Nobody could ever replace her—the sole pinnacle of Ryuusei-gai, its foundation, its protector, its _Queen_. Not even him. That was how much respect he actually held for her.

Kuroro narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

_No. Perhaps, there is one possible candidate..._

_

* * *

_

Machi crept in the embrace of the shadows of the harbour. She kept vigilant watch on the abducted children, particularly on a certain blond. She kept herself in complete Zetsu, in case some of the smugglers might be some Nen-users. Even if they were, she would have no problems dealing with such small fries. She just wanted to avoid unnecessary hassles. Frankly, she was unsure on why she was doing what she was doing. One thing for sure: that little doppelganger of the Kuruta compelled her to keep a watch. She was simply planning to wait and see what would happen next.

Being a Spider, Machi was confident of her abilities. She was dead sure that her Zetsu was perfect, so nobody would notice her presence in the dark corners of the place. How astounded and caught off guard she was, when the little Kurapika-look-alike boy turned his head and directed his dark eyes right towards her direction.

Instinctively, Machi ducked further into the darker part of the shadow. She double-checked her Zetsu, and it was still perfect. She turned to the blond boy again and found the little boy still staring intensely at her direction.

_He can't be seeing me. Perhaps other things..._ Machi tried to convince herself as she looked around her surrounding, but found nothing that might have attracted the boy's interest...except for herself.

Turning back to regard the blond boy with critical eyes, she found that his eyes were still boring at her direction with an intensity that matched Kuroro's stareIt made her flinch ever so slightly, but nonetheless she kept scrutinising the boy's face for a clue of what he might be thinking. Children were usually easy to read, not to mention that four-years-old like him were notorious for their very short attention span (about 15 minutes only), but this one was an exception. It was highly unnerving. His countenance betrayed nothing of his feelings and emotions, only the calmness and hopefulness that made Machi frowned.

_How can the kid be hopeful when he's in such situation? _She pondered. Then she saw it.

The boy mouthed a "HELP" to her.

Machi raised her eyebrows quizzically. So the boy did see her, but how come? She was stubbornly confident that her Zetsu had been perfect all the time!

Suddenly, a loud clanking sound snapped Machi back from her deep thoughts. Several shady men approached the cage and spoke hoarsely to the children. Some of them had smaller cages in their arms, enough to fit several children at one time. Pitiful whimpers and cries could be heard from inside the cage, but they were soon drowned into silence as one of the men barked rudely at them while kicking the side of the cage.

"Noisy brats. Can't even keep their damn mouths shut for some measly minutes! Dammit!"

"Well, they are brats for a reason. Now you don't slack your blasted ass. Get movin'!"

With several curses and other colourful combination of words exchanged between the disgruntled men, they put the smaller cages before the occupied one and opened them. Then they opened the children's cage and ordered them to get out and line up. Machi crouched in the darkness, watching with vigilant eyes as the children scampered out of the cage with visibly trembling legs and arms. When the blond boy finally got out—he was the last one—Machi tensed up for a reason that she had yet to find out. She had a bad feeling about it.

Then, she found the reason as soon as the boy stood on both his legs.

He bolted towards her direction.

The men cursed loudly and one of them turned to chase after the boy. Machi's eyes grew wide in surprise and irritation. What was the boy thinking? Surely he knew, if he was smart enough, that he would not be able to outrun those grown-ups? However, judging from the little boy's speed—which was highly unusual for such a little child—Machi suspected that the boy did hope to outrun those men. Was he desperate? When the boy was close enough for Machi to study his expression closer, then she knew that she was right. He was desperate. Very much so.

How could she not know that? Not when his eyes were blazing scarlet.

The grunt was closing in to the little boy, and when he stretched out his arm to grab the frail-looking blond, Machi could not help but to react. In an instant, she sprung to her feet and lashed out with her Nen strings. In almost the same instant, the man was depraved of one of his good arms.

Too shocked from the all-too-sudden loss of his arm, the man could only stare dumbly at the now blunt and bloody end of his arm while the other children shrieked in terror. By the time Meta had reached and hid behind Machi and by the time the pain had registered to the man's mind, he let out a beastly cry of agony that could have woken up the dead from their graves.

"You cut off his arm!" The little boy protested, his voice upset, from behind her. Machi gave him one raised eyebrow. How could he say such thing in such circumstances?

"What the hell? Who the fuck are you?" The men approached Machi, rage and fear mixing in their small eyes.

With an expression as cold as an ice berg and aura as chilling as the South Pole wind, Machi turned to regard them with condescending look. She sneered at them while she flexed her arms in preparation of welcoming any daring challengers. None of the grunts dared to take another step. When Machi narrowed her eyes dangerously, they visibly flinched.

"G—get the kids!"

In great hurry, they all surrounded the children and brandished their pathetic daggers and knives towards the children.

"Step in closer, an' we'll kill 'em all!" One of the men shouted, but his arm were shaking all the while.

_Pathetic. Ridiculously pathetic,_ Machi scoffed inwardly.

They were definitely non-Nen-users, otherwise they would have noticed her little Nen strings trick. Machi did not advance, though, since she had no need of such act to get to them. Her Nen would suffice.

"Do what you want with them. I don't give a damn." She told them casually with glacial voice that made them flinch, but still she took one step just to enjoy the look of terror in their faces.

Out of desperation, one of the men took out a gun and fired at her. With a flick of her wrist, the bullet was split into two perfect halves five metres before it reached her. Unable to comprehend the situation, the men decided to run for their lives rather than to face the monstrous small woman with strange power. Just as Machi decided to let them off, the blond boy behind her shouted at them.

"Wait! Give me back my necklace!"

And he ran after them with his small fists flailing in the air.

"Boy!" Machi called out to him, but it fell on deaf ears.

The blond boy kept running after the men with his uncanny speed. Soon enough, the terror-plagued grunts started to shout at each other to 'get rid of that damn kid'. The gun-wielder spun and trained his gun to the boy. Barely aware of the danger called 'firearm' pointed towards him, the blond boy kept chasing after them. Only when the trigger was pulled, giving off a deafening explosive sound, did the boy realise the grave danger he was in. Machi lashed with her Nen strings, but even before her Nen strings reached the bullet, the boy's reflexes took action first.

His reaction was most extraordinary, considering that it was executed by a barely four years-old boy.

With a frightened yelp and closed eyes, the boy actually managed to duck the bullet by executing a trained evasive roll. Plunging hands first to the ground, he rolled on his back until he was back to his feet. After blinking his eyes several times; seemingly to rid himself of the temporary disorientation, he chased after the 'bad guys' again with equal vehemence.

While Machi was staring wide-eyed at the unexpected stunt that the boy pulled, the men by then were already as white as gypsum wall. Frantically, seeing that the little 'demon' kid was closing in to them, they decided to throw away the item the little blond fiend had been demanding. With one uncaring toss, they ditched the said necklace and ran for their lives.

The blond boy gave a happy squeal and picked the necklace jovially. He cleaned it and afterwards wore it with care around his neck, before slipping it behind the safe cover of his thin shirt. He turned to Machi; who was still staring at him like he had sprouted two heads, and gave her a big, innocent grin. Machi then snapped back to reality.

"Who are you?" She asked warily. The boy was by no means an ordinary boy.

The boy blinked, cocked his head to one side and answered as cheerfully as a child could:

"I'm called Meta."

Machi frowned at this answer. That was a suspiciously cautious answer—it was not something a little child his age would answer. Usually they would answer with "My name is", but this one...

"_What_ are you?" Machi rephrased her question. Normal children would not understand the meaning of that question, but then again the boy was a somewhat-beyond-normal boy. True to her intuition, the boy called Meta went rigid at her question.

Machi frowned deeply at him, and Meta gulped audibly. Machi recalled the brief time when Meta's eyes flashed scarlet. With caution she approached him and knelt before him so that she could study his face more closely. Meta, surprisingly, did not run away when she approached him despite her having dismembering a man's arm. Meta had been unnervingly calm throughout the entire ruckus. From such close proximity, Machi discovered then that his eyes had not been black. In fact, they were rich blue—like the colour of deep sapphire.

Suddenly, breaking Machi's train of thoughts was a phone call. With her eyes still fixed on the blond's face, Machi answered the call without bothering to check the caller's ID. When the voice from the other end of the receiver greeted her with its deep ocean-calm voice, Machi froze and her eyes widened ever so slightly.

_What a frightening coincidence..._ she wondered, before she greeted back the person from the other end of the call line.

"Danchou."

* * *

The forest grew thicker and denser with every step that they took. At the same time, the further they went into the heart of the forest, the quieter the forest grew. The sounds of the insects and birds had thinned out considerably, leaving only faint whispery sounds at distance.

"Are you really fine with coming along with me for this one?" Kurapika asked her companion.

_Una doesn't mind. Una has always been with you for every mission you take._

Kurapika frowned at Una's choice of words. The word 'mission' always reminded her of the Genei Ryodan, since they used that term often for the activities they took. Dismissing the insignificant thought, she turned her attention back to the black-horned Unicorn.

"They really won't hurt you, right?"

Una gave a short snort.

_The Unicorn Tribe people do not care about renegade unicorns. Though..._

Her step faltered slightly.

_It is wise not to bring Meta along for this occasion, because Unicorn Tribe warriors are rather...harsh._

The word had scarcely left her mouth when suddenly a voice boomed in the quietness of the forest.

"HALT!"

The authoritative voice rang in the woods and at the same time one arrow landed right in front of Kurapika's feet. Kurapika took one step back warily. There were movements ahead of her, on top of the hill. When Kurapika looked up, she was greeted by a lone figure.

It was a girl, or a young woman who had barely passed her teenage life. She had wild auburn hair that spiked towards all directions despite being braided. She wore a kind of tribal hunting outfit; with all the leathers and weapons attached to her. Her skin was moderately sun-tanned and her muscles were just finely defined. Protruding from her forehead and from the bushes of her wild hair was an ivory white horn. Her eyes were the colour of chrome diopside, and there were fierce green flames in those orbs; providing a stark contrast with her darker hair and skin colour. In her hands were a monstrous-sized bow, while strapped across her back was a quiver full of sturdy arrows.

Kurapika frowned when she saw the young woman, especially when she noted her horn. She felt like she had seen it somewhere before, not referring to Una.

_Yorn, the daughter of the Chieftain of the Unicorn Tribe_, announced Una with soft, nervous voice.

"This is the sacred ground of the Unicorn Tribe! You are not allowed to advance any further!" The young woman shouted from the top of the hill, with her chin held high proudly.

When her fierce eyes landed on Una, she frowned deeply. Then, her expression turned sour and displeased.

"Una, daughter of Bara." She said with slow, deliberately flat voice that was devoid of any emotions. "What are you doing here? And with a human, nonetheless! And look at your horn! You really are the daughter of your father."

One might say that she sounded derisive and contemptuous, but Kurapika could detect the slight forcedness behind those words. She even detected a hint of disappointment. Her words were not entirely heartfelt. So why was she saying such mean words if she did not really mean it?

"State your business!" Yorn announced again, this time impatiently.

Warily, Kurapika answered her: "My name is Kurapika. I come here as the representative of the Hunters Organiza—"

Kurapika had not even finished her sentence yet when Yorn's eyes were set ablaze with what might be described as uncontained hatred.

"Hunters!" She hissed hatefully, her voice dripping with venomous contempt.

Without any prior warnings whatsoever and with a speed that startled even Kurapika, the young woman already had several arrows notched to her bow at the same time and released them. A torrent of arrows showered Kurapika, and out of reflex she summoned her Nen chains. With trained movements of her arms and wrists, she managed to deflect most of the arrows. The problem was that Una could not evade them due to her size, so Kurapika had to protect both of them.

"Wait! I intend no harms!"

"Lies!" The young woman screeched, and she released yet another wave of arrows.

This time, the torrent was more intense than previously. Inevitably, one of the arrows grazed her arm but that was all. Thinking that it was alright to get one or two scratch, Kurapika ignored it and did not bother to check the shallow cut. Instead, she focused on the young woman called Yorn.

Yorn had a wild look in her face. With her wild hair, she looked like an angered lion ready to pounce and tear everything with her canine. She gritted her teeth with so much strength that she might be able to crush steel with her jaw's strength alone.

"My fiancé was killed by a Hunter!" She yelled in rage. "A shameless woman, who charmed him with her disgusting Nen skill, beheaded him and skinned his head!"

Kurapika's blood turned cold.

_Vaise..._

Kurapika remembered. Back then, during the test to apply to be Neon Nostrad's bodyguard, one of the artefacts that they had to get was the skull of a member of the Unicorn Tribe. That sexually promiscuous woman with horrendous Nen skill—'Instant Lover' was definitely horrible—had been the one to acquire it. Kurapika never imagined that the woman would go as far as killing one and _skinning_ the head to get the skull. Such atrocity! It made her sick.

She had been so distracted by her thoughts that she only noticed the next coming torrent of arrows very belatedly. Hastily she summoned and manoeuvred her Nen chains but one lone arrow managed to zoom past her defence. Time seemed to have slowed down when the arrow made its straight way towards her face. Just as it was a metre away from her face, a strange occurrence happened: the arrow combusted and was reduced into ashes.

Eyes bulging out in shock and surprise, Kurapika turned to regard Yorn. The Unicorn Tribe warrior had the same astonished expression on her face, but she quickly regained her equilibrium. Just as she grabbed another set of arrows from her quiver and was about to set them to her gigantic bow, another voice rang in the disturbed forest.

"Enough, Yorn!"

With a slight rustles of leaves and soft thud of something landing on the hard ground of the hill, another warrior appeared. He was clearly a much older and experienced warrior than Yorn was, as Kurapika judged from the way he carried himself and the many old scars that adorned his tanned skin. Curiously, the man's skin was much fairer than the girl's. She put a decisive conclusion when she noted the way Yorn obediently followed the sharp instruction by the man, though most unwillingly.

"But, Lazmorgh! She—" She started, but was cut off abruptly by this man called Lazmorgh.

"She is the survivor of the Kuruta massacre." He told her gruffly. "Evidently, there really is a survivor. The Druid wants to see her."

Apparently, his answer satisfied Yorn for she quickly tucked her arrows back into her quiver and lowered her bow to her side. However, she declared that she was not convinced yet that Kurapika was truly a Kuruta. To back up the man's claim, Kurapika willed her eyes to turn scarlet. Upon seeing her eyes, only then Yorn gave up with her insistence to chase Kurapika away. Grudgingly, she turned to Kurapika and apologised _crudely _for her earlier rudeness.

"Since the Druid seeks audience with you, then we are to treat you as our guest. Come along." She said flatly, before she spun on her heels and stormed out of Kurapika's sight, obscured by the hill.

Lazmorgh; the man with short, dark golden, curly hair and jade eyes, regarded Kurapika with even look before he, too, invited her to come into the hidden village of the Unicorn Tribe.

"If you manage to go this far, it only means that you are welcomed by the forest. Come, girl. The Unicorn Tribe welcomes you." He said politely, but turned to Una to give her a stern look. "But she stays away."

Kurapika was about to protest, but Una stopped her.

_It's okay. Una understands. This is as far as Una can accompany you. Una will wait here._ She said softly, though there was a hurt tone in her voice.

Unhappily; because she had to leave the Unicorn behind, Kurapika followed Lazmorgh's lead towards the village.

In agreeable silence Lazmorgh led Kurapika across the settlement of the tribe. It was a quite village, but she could virtually taste wariness and fear towards her emitting from the villagers. She could understand that. Living secretively in hiding and in a remote place was not a pleasant thing—she had done that. She understood their fears and wariness—she had been living with those negative sentiments. As such, she did her best to ignore those restless eyes directed to her.

Lazmorgh stopped when they had reached a certain house. Actually, the word 'house' was not the best word to describe it as it looked nowhere near the typical houses she used to see in other villages, towns, and cities. It resembled a hut, but was definitely in a very much better condition than huts in slums. It looked like a house built in an old Celtic fashion—the roof was still covered in straws and the wall was made of blocks of thick, sturdy woods and stones.

Seeing the outfits that the villagers wore and from the studies she had done about the Unicorn Tribe, Kurapika drew the conclusion that the houses there had been built traditionally.

Kurapika shrugged off the matter from her minds. It was irrelevant as she knew well their desire to preserve and live in their traditions. Given the choice, Kurapika would have chosen to wear her tribal outfits—just like these Unicorn Tribe people did—but unfortunately she could no longer do that.

Dismissing the old issue, Kurapika straightened up as Lazmorgh gestured at her to enter the grandest hut—obviously belonging to the Chief of the Tribe. She was there to do her job as a Hunter, not to contemplate on her loss regarding her own tribe. She had known the pain of the extinction of a tribe. She was not going to let others experience the same tragedy.

One victim was already enough.

* * *

Meta could hardly comprehend it. The big sister with dark blue, funny-spiky hair had just answered a call, but the only thing she said was one word: "Danchou", and she remained silent for the rest of it. It could not even qualify to be a conversation, and so Meta did not understand why she even bothered to answer the call if she was not going to talk at all?

Every now and then the big sister with sharp eyes would look at him with this strange expression in her eyes. She seemed restless around him, and Meta knew it. He could literally see the wariness in the air surrounding her as if it was tangible.

Meta was dead bored. He wanted to go after the other children and escape from the spooky place, but for the sake of politeness he had to stay until the big sister was done with her call and only then he could properly excused himself out of her presence. Good manners had been something drilled into his head by his mother since the day he could walk and talk. Having nothing else to do, Meta started fidgeting with whatever he could fidget with—his hair, his fingers, his toes, his shoes, his outfit, and the list went on.

Machi observed the little boy in silence from the corner of her eyes as she listened intently to what her Danchou had to say to her.

_[We'll be meeting in Yorkshin again in two days time. The others have been informed.]_

She had not bothered asking him of what the purpose of the meeting was. Machi did not question her Danchou's order and decision, but it was just humane to ask for the purpose of an activity and she would sometimes, if she felt like it, ask Kuroro. However, this time round she was so distracted by the 'little demon boy' that she only paid attention to the important details: meeting, two days, Yorkshin. That was all that mattered.

It was even more distracting now that the boy started talking to nobody in particular. He did not seem to be talking to himself, because his manner of speaking indicated that he was holding a proper conversation with _something_.

"They are taking a truck?" Meta exclaimed as his eyes grew in size.

He cocked his head sideways as if listening to something.

"Can they operate it?" A pause, before he continued, "She can drive trucks? Cool!"

Machi frowned. For a four-years-old, his speech was extraordinarily fluent, but most importantly, what was the boy talking about? And with who? By then, the boy was already having his back towards her while his eyes were trained to something else that she could not pinpoint.

"They aren't leaving me, right?" Meta said again with horrified voice, his eyes as wide as a saucer. Then he seemed to calm down a bit. "Really? They are coming for me? Good!"

Meta turned around to face Machi, but he found himself staring at empty space where the big sister had been standing just a minute ago. His face looked greatly disappointed and his shoulders sagged.

"Aw, where did she go? She didn't say goodbye…" He whined while he went his way. "And I was just about to ask her to come along."

As much as she wanted to follow the boy and as much as she was intrigued by him, Machi decided that the matter was not hers to meddle with—at least not hers alone. She would have to discuss with the others first.

* * *

"Wait."

Kurapika obediently stopped in her tracks and turned her head to regard the person who had just called out to her: the hot headed Unicorn warrior, Yorn. She was standing at the entrance to the hut that they had just exited; the hut of the Chieftain of the Unicorn Tribe. Next to her was Lazmorgh, who was looking at the younger warrior from the corner of his eyes.

The Kuruta girl had just finished her duty as the Hunter Association's ambassador of forming a deal with the Unicorn Tribe. Luckily for her, the Chief had been more than willing to be taken under the protective wing of the Hunter Association. Logically, there was no harm in taking the offer since the Unicorn Tribe was really in danger of extinction. However, had the Chief been a proud man, the negotiation would have been very much harder. By agreeing with the deal, the Unicorn Tribe was now practically the property of the Hunter Associaton in a way. Apparently, it was of no concern to the Chief so long as his tribe could avoid the imminent extinction.

He had been very wise, in her opinion.

Yorn had a look of distraught curiosity on her face. Kurapika could sense that Yorn had a question or two that she wanted to ask, but she was keeping them at the edge of her tongue for a reason. Hesitance, perhaps. Being patient and polite, Kurapika waited until the female warrior was ready to ask her question.

"That shoulder," Yorn finally said while pointing at Kurapika's shoulder that had a shallow cut on it. "That cut was from my arrow, correct?"

Kurapika looked at the shallow cut and recalled the torrents of arrows that Yorn had showered her with the moment the Unicorn girl had discovered her job as a Hunter. Kurapika nodded in confirmation. Yorn then frowned deeply.

"My arrows are treated with special poisons that can break through any Nen defences," she began with slow voice.

Yes. She began making those arrows since the day that her fiancé was brutally murdered by Vaise. She was aware that there were Hunters out there with Nen skills to produce cure-all antidotes, and so she persevered with vengeance in making a poison that was immune to any form of Nen. Aside from it immunity against Nen, the poison itself was lethal enough to be able to kill a person in less than two hours when administered directly through injection or oral consumption, while the slightest cut made by any of that poison-treated weapon was enough to completely paralyze a grown-up.

"No Nen healing abilities are able to purge the poison out of the system—except you. _What_ are you? I know the Kuruta is famous for their Scarlet Eyes, but this? I doubt that this is one of the wonders of the Kuruta tribe." Yorn said not-scathingly.

"I..."

Kurapika knew the answer, but she could not say it—it was Ishtar's essence flowing within her system, giving her extraordinary powers that were beyond even Nen. She herself was not sure on how to respond to that question. Indeed, what manner of a being was she? A normal human? A Nen user? A witch? A magician? She did not fall into any of those categories. So what was she?

Was she a monster? Was she a freak of nature?

Perhaps.

"Do not let the foolish girl's words confuse you, young woman." A soft, gentle voice suddenly said to her.

Kurapika turned her head to spot a lanky old man with snow white long beard hanging from his chin down to his waist. He reminded her so much of Hatsubaba from Ryuusei-gai, only this one had a docile impression on his face, while the wizened old woman had a sharp witch-like impression all over her. Also, the old man was twig thin and tall while Hatsubaba was short and 'plump'. The old man's approached them in peace, his staff secured in the seemingly fragile grip of his almost withered hand.

"Druid Olaf, greetings." Yorn acknowledge his presence with a slight bow of her head.

The old Druid nodded back in response to her greetings.

"Yorn, do not concern yourself with matters that are irrelevant." He reminded the young Unicorn warrior. "The nature of her being is just as natural as yours is."

"The natural order of things?" Yorn asked rather sceptically.

"As fate dictates it." The wise man nodded solemnly. "And speaking of that..."

Druid Olaf turned to gaze at Kurapika's stony face—she had no definite expression on her visage. She did not know what to feel as she was too confused with the flow of the conversations among those Unicorn Tribe people. She did understand, though, that the Druid was trying to say that her current state was not something abominable as to oppose the nature of the world. She felt an oddly immense relief in her heart.

"If I were you, my dear," continued the Druid with softer voice, "I would have rushed to my kin's aid."

Kurapika's eyes widened exponentially while Yorn regarded the Druid as if he was a senile old man. Lazmorgh had to elbow her so that she dropped that expression off her face—and it was not a light elbow. She rubbed her sore side while asking the Druid with annoyed tone.

"What? I thought she's the last Kuruta?"

"No. Not anymore." The Druid said with his eyes still fixed on Kurapika's face—which by then had turned ashen white in horror as realization dawned to her.

"She's the only survivor of the massacre, but she's no longer the last Kuruta alive." Lazmorgh elaborated for Yorn, but the girl only gave him a dumb expression.

The older male hunter started murmuring something along the line "dumbly clueless", and Yorn started yelling at Lazmorgh. Kurapika was not paying attention to what they were saying anymore—she did not even pay a heed to Yorn's colourful combination of words that even made the Druid cringe. There was only one concern in her mind; one that the Druid had generously offered to hint to her. After a while, only then she was able to put it into words tinged with a sense of horror:

"Meta."

* * *

Leorio grabbed his ringing cell phone as he kept his eyes glued to the TV screen, searching for a clue on what was really going on in Yorkshin City with all the children gathering at the outskirt of the city. The police had soon taken custody of them, but Leorio could not find Meta among the children. That was a very bad thing.

"Killua? Just perfect! Have you watched the news?" Leorio said to his phone as he grappled with his coffee stained shirt, trying to take it off. The coffee stain was actually still steaming.

_[Dummy. We got a call from Fino. Meta disappeared three days ago. She tried looking for him, but couldn't find him anywhere around the town and the forest.]_ Killua replied through the phone.

"He's in Yorkshin! For some reasons, he's with other 'stray' kids. Who knows what troubles he's got himself involved this time round." Leorio grumbled while he tried to put on his socks as he skipped his way to the entrance door of his apartment.

_[Yorkshin, huh? Got it. Gon and I will take the first blimp heading there. Meet you there?]_

"Yeah. See you in the airport." Leorio said before he hung up, grabbed his handy-all-the-time suitcase and ran for the door. His breakfast and the coffee-mess in the living room were totally forgotten as he focused entirely on getting a certain blond boy out of troubles.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Hi, guys. We meet again here ^^ I hope you are not confused with the paragraphs and the segments of the story coz because the timeline is sometimes fast-forwarded. If you notice the part with Hatsubaba wondering why Kuroro's been setting up distance between him and the world surrounding him, remember the Half Empty Glass (the bonus story)? It has something to do with his decision regarding the Solomon Ring. So those who haven't read the Half Empty Glass, go and read and REVIEW. Don't forget to review this one as well, so I can get a bearing on how you readers think of this sequel. By the by, I think you ought to know Meta's real identity by now hehehehe =P_

_And also, take note that now I'm entering my university life, and I'm taking Arts here. So, for those who haven't noticed, Arts is actually a demanding course that takes a lot of my waking hours drawing and drawing and honing my skills. So I'll try my best to update once a week, but maybe not as regularly as before, i.e. not in the same particular day._

_**Next:**__ Everything seemed to revolve around this little boy called Meta. Who was he really? Machi intended to discuss it with the other Spiders, but what would really come out of it? Kuroro seemed to be none the wiser about the issue, but that would not last long. Everything seemed to go back to the place of beginning of everything: Yorkshin. _


	2. Chapter 1: Race

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own HunterxHunter..._

_**Story so far: **__Machi decided that the matter concerning the blond 4-years-old little boy called Meta was to be discussed among the Spiders. What would they decide upon the matter? Also, what about Leorio and the others who were rushing to find Meta? Most importantly, what about Kurapika? Kuroro, despite everything, seemed to be none the wiser but that was about to change as well._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 1**

_**RACE**_

_**

* * *

**_

The night she had met and left Meta in the harbour, she had immediately rushed to Yorkshin City to meet up with the other Spiders before Kuroro reached the metropolitan city. She had something urgent to discuss with the others; a topic that they all had well known that the Spider Head was not too fond to talk about as of late. In the end, she only discussed it with two other people: Shalnark and—surprisingly again—Nobunaga.

"Are you sure of it, Machi?" Shalnark asked with dubious voice. "He has Scarlet Eyes?"

"Damn sure." She responded flatly. She could have not mistaken it, since the eyes blazed brilliantly in the dim light of the night harbour.

"And what exactly are you suggesting we _do_, by telling us all those?" Nobunaga asked with his brows knitted. "Even if the Kuruta really has a brat, it doesn't concern us, right?"

At his last statement, Machi and Shalnark rolled their eyes heavenwards in unison. They did not even bother extrapolating their—Machi's and Shalnark's, that is—mutual-yet-silent assumption that the boy might be related to their Danchou in many ways.

"Your girlfriend didn't tell you anything?" Machi asked Shalnark rather distractedly.

"Nope." Came the almost-too-immediate-that-it-was-suspicious answer.

Machi bit her lower lip, too distracted to notice Shalnark's hasty reply. Frankly, she wanted to dig out some information about that little blond boy. She was _absolutely_ certain that Meta was a Kuruta by means of his Scarlet Eyes, but she was only _almost_ certain that the boy was really related to the last living Kuruta they all knew: Kurapika Kuruta. Machi did not want to jump to conclusions—that was the mother of many grave mistakes that most people commit throughout history—and that was the life lesson that Kuroro Lucifer had taught his Spiders over and over again.

_Jumping into conclusions and making unsubstantiated guesses are destructive habits,_ Kuroro had once told them in a meeting. _In our case, it may as well be life-costing._

Of course. The Genei Ryodan had to be most meticulous and careful about planning and decision-making, especially ones that took place in the heat of battles. Right after the official birth of the Genei Ryodan in Ryuusei-gai, Kuroro had taken the liberty of drilling them with an 'effective decision-making through observation'. At that time, he had said that considering the organization's future main activities, they would be involved in many life-threatening battles with many underhanded tactics prepared against them. To deal with such situations, Kuroro had made a clear point that his Spiders had to have _adequate_ (by his standard, of course) quick observation skills that would let them observe in one glance and stimulate a plan in a blink of an eye.

Well, Machi had been a special exception because of her top-notch intuition that Kuroro had approved of. He had strong faith in her intuition; one that even made her feel slightly guilty for some reasons.

The corner of Machi's mouth twitched as she remembered those training regimes. They were more hellish than any training sessions that her Ryuusei-gai combat tutor had ever subjected her to. Ah, yes. The original members of the Genei Ryodan that hailed from Ryuusei-gai were children who were raised for combats; groomed to be future elite-force for the Mafia in the outside world.

Their whole childhood had been worse than the ordinary street children of the Ryuusei-gai. They were nurtured to be a cold-blooded killing machine, to obey their masters in the future—the Mafia—with absolute loyalty. Loyalty was perhaps the only virtue ever instilled into their minds since their birth. All of them had never thought or imagined living another life than being an elite force. Some of them were not even aware that there was another form of lifestyle out there since they were isolated further in the cruel embrace of Ryuusei-gai, hidden further from the surface of humanity.

Everything changed when Kuroro had come to them. He had barged in; most rudely and disrespectfully, and demanded the custody of the teenager fighters. Everything happened in a hazy blurs of memories, and the only important thing Machi remembered was the first feeling of freedom and real life.

Kuroro Lucifer had offered them freedom and a new life. He introduced them to the world, letting them roam the world and have their funs so long as they stayed loyal to him. It had been unnecessary for him to state the loyalty part. The moment he had taken off the imaginary shackles around their necks and wrists, and getting them out of the cold cage of Ryuusei-gai training ground, they all had unanimously pledged their oath of undying loyalty to Kuroro Lucifer and nobody else. Not even to Ishtar of Ryuusei-gai.

"Machi?" Nobunaga called out to her, breaking her from her trance-like recollection of the past.

"What?" She asked rather snappishly.

The samurai twitched a bit upon being regarded with such hostile response. Nevertheless, it was nothing new. Machi was always like that anyway.

"What do we do now?" He asked again, eyeing the blue-haired woman with questioning eyes, daring her to speak her mind.

Machi frowned at him. She sifted through her choice of words, before speaking calmly with trained voice.

"I'm not Danchou. You do what you want to do."

"Then what are _you_ going to do?" Nobunaga asked pointedly.

Machi gave a scowl that was saying: _Nobunaga, you are such a dumb excuse of a samurai. _With a sharp turn of her heels, Machi headed towards the exit of their dingy headquarter.

"I'm going after the boy."

"Do you know where he is?" Shalnark chirped curiously.

"…He will be here in Yorkshin City by tonight."

Not in the mood of giving a further explanation whatsoever, Machi simply strolled out of the dilapidated building that was their somewhat permanent headquarter in Yorkshin City.

Meta did mention something about trucks in his monologue, so she assumed that he and the children would be taking a truck to escape from the harbour. If they had gone by top-speed; which depended entirely on the driver's driving skill—was it the oldest girl of the group?—they really would have reached the city by nightfall. She would have to keep watch on the streets.

Little did she know that such measure would be unnecessary.

* * *

"Wait! Where do you think you are going?"

Yorn's yell fell on deaf ears as Kurapika made a mad dash towards the exit of the village, to where Una had been waiting for her return. The only thing she had in mind was a planned sequence of actions she had to take: get away from the wretchedly isolated forest, go back to civilization with airport, take the fastest blimp to wherever Meta is and get him out of dangers.

The Unicorn girl was still standing in a daze as she witnessed the Kuruta running off like she was chased by some demons.

"Sheesh! What recklessness!" She commented while shaking her head in incredulity.

"Look who's talking." Lazmorgh said with slight mocking tone. "Besides, her hastiness is understandable."

Yorn spun on her heels to glare at Lazmorgh.

"You always defend her against me! What's this? Are you smitten by her?" Yorn kicked the dirt with her shoes, a pout of dissatisfaction gracing her face.

"No. I'm merely stating facts," responded Lazmorgh evenly, but an evilly amused smirk graced his face. "Then again, maybe you're right. I'm defending _everything_ against you."

Yorn's jaws fell most unceremoniously and un-ladylike, her eyes as wide as a saucer plate, and her expression positively shocked and stunned. When she had recovered from her shock—which lasted quite long enough for Lazmorgh to lazily count until five—she kicked him on the shin with such speed that the older man did not see it coming.

"HOW COULD YOU? YOU, YOU—"

THUNK.

Something hard and thankfully blunt hit her in the head with a force that was enough to send her doubling up.

"Awch!" She complained while rubbing her sore head.

"Be quite, girl! You and your loudspeaker mouth." The Chief; a large man built to be a hunter, emerged from his dwelling. "And you too, Lazmorgh!"

The said man; who had been snickering upon seeing the young girl getting abused by her own father, stopped his snigger and stood in attention. The Chief poked his stomach with the blunt end of his chiefdom sceptre that he had employed earlier to thwack his loudmouthed daughter's head.

"Stop bullying Yorn. How old do you think you two are?"

Yorn stuck her tongue rudely to Lazmorgh, but quickly withdrew it into the safe enclosure of her mouth before her father noticed it. The Chief turned his attention back to Yorn as she kept her tongue in her mouth just in time.

"By the way, Yorn. You haven't treated her wounds yet," said he with disapproving tone.

"Pfft. She doesn't look like she needs any treatments." Yorn shrugged uncaringly.

"It is unheard of for the creator to forget the nature of her own creation." Druid Olaf, who had been standing there since the beginning, reprimanded her. "Have you forgotten that the property of your poison is so vicious that it can stay dormant in the victim's system for so long before it emerges at the right time again?"

"But—" She began protesting, but was cut off by the Chief.

"If she died by your poison, Yorn, you will be charged with the crime of killing the last Kuruta alive." Her father said in a death-threat voice.

"But you said she's not the only Kuruta anymore!" Yorn stomped her foot in impatience.

"The fact remains that she is the only _pure-blooded_ Kuruta alive." The Druid explained to her. "You were not paying attention, Yorn."

"W—wait! If she's the last pure-blooded one, then the other Kuruta is half-blooded?"

"How clever of you." Lazmorgh said sarcastically.

"You shut up." She snapped to him but he only shrugged. "So, that half-blooded Kuruta is?"

The Druid nodded his head solemnly.

"Her son."

* * *

The moment they had reached the edge of the forest that was nearest to the airport, Kurapika had bid a hasty good-bye to Una—who understood the whole circumstances as she patchily explained to her in their express gallop to the airport—and had bolted to the ticket counter.

"I am buying a ticket for the fastest blimp!" She told the woman sitting behind the ticket counter.

The pretty brunette was shocked at first, since Kurapika came in a huff and was utterly dishevelled. There were leaves on her hair and outfit, her hair was unruly, her breathing shallow and uneven as if she had just run a marathon; but she cared no less about it. Meta was top-priority in her mind.

"Um… Sure. Your destination, Miss?"

"I—"

Shoot.

Kurapika only then belatedly realised that she did not know where Meta was presently. Mumbling a string of soft, mild curses beneath her breath and muttering a "give me a minute" to the ticket clerk, Kurapika took out her portable map from her pocket and summoned her Dowsing Chain. With strained patience, she scanned the whole map until the pendulum began to swing to indicate the location of the little boy.

Her heart skipped a bit and she froze when she noticed the name of the place.

Yorkshin City—the place where it all started.

* * *

Without further complaints, Yorn effectively and efficiently packed her necessities into a small leather travelling bag. With one decisive pull, she closed the bag and slung it across her shoulder on the opposite direction of her quiver. She had not forgotten to slip a small dirk into the empty slot of her belt, in case she needed to fight in close combat.

"I'd say that you look more like you're going for a journey across the world than to go after that Kuruta." Lazmorgh commented from the doorway of her bedroom.

"Better be prepared now than sorry later." Yorn said deadpan as she rechecked her equipment for the last time.

"Hmm…" Lazmorgh only hummed a vague response.

Yorn had said nothing against the Chief's order for her to go after the Kuruta to deliver the antidote and treated her in case the worse—severe case of poisoning—happened. He figured that Yorn might have empathised with the Kuruta. Yorn had lost her fiancé as well; she would understand the dread of losing a loved one, not to mention that the Kuruta's concern was her son; her flesh and blood.

How sweet of her. The thought made Lazmorgh gave away a small gentle smile.

"Say…" Yorn muttered with small voice. "You aren't coming with me?"

"No," he answered while shaking his head minutely. "They need me to defend the village in case something happened."

"So they don't need me, huh?" Yorn clicked her tongue in irritation but it was not heartfelt.

"Manpower problem." Lazmorgh corrected her. He reached out and ruffled her wild hair with a gentleness that was not expected from a warrior such as him. "Come back soon and safe."

Yorn gave a vague hum. Lazmorgh then bent down a bit and rubbed the side of his horn against hers; it was a sign of affection between the Unicorn Tribe people. Yorn looked up and her chrome diopside eyes met his jade eyes. Though his face remained almost expressionless, his lips were curled up slightly and his eyes shone gently.

"I will miss my loud sister."

"And I will miss my obnoxious brother."

She gave him a genuine smile of thankfulness, before she exited her room and went out of the village to begin her own supposedly short journey.

* * *

Definitely a magnet for troubles. That was Machi's personal opinion of the blond boy called Meta, as she concluded from her observation_ and_ experience.

Just as Machi had scarcely perched herself on top of the tallest building in the vicinity, she heard a loud crashing sound from the streets below. Curiously, she had looked down and found herself surprised yet again by that boy.

There, on the outskirt of the city that bordered the city from the slums was an extraordinary traffic accident. A truck had crashed into a fountain, inflicting quite a heavy damage on the public property. Judging from the extent of the damage, it was highly probable that the driver had lost control of the truck—or rather, as Machi's strong gut was telling her, the driver had not known the proper method of driving a truck. The vehicle had obviously gone on top speed while crashing against the fountain.

Bunch of children of all races poured from the pick-up trucks like ants spreading out of their nest. With unmistakably childish, high-pitched squeals and shrieks, those children invaded the city like a wild tidal wave. Soon enough the glaring sounds of the sirens of the police cars, coupled with the noisy sounds of the reporter's vans gathering around the vicinity, added into the cacophony of the whole accident.

Happy to see the policemen; as they might presume that the good policemen would bring them back to their respective homes, the children rushed towards those poor men who were soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of the children. With the advantage of a broad line of view due to the high altitude she was in, Machi could spot the blond boy Meta stealthily taking retreat from the crowds into the dark recess of the forest nearby.

The boy's behaviour bewildered Machi. Children usually shunned away from dark places, especially places like forests, however Meta seemed to prefer the quietness and solitude of the night forest. More curious than ever, Machi decided to stalk the kid. When she was close enough to have him in her earshot, she could hear him engaging in a monologue _again_.

"Mom must be worried…" The boy said huskily as he easily navigated himself in the thin forest.

He fell silent for a while, as if listening to a response of some sort.

"No. I hope she yells at me. When Mom's giving me the silent treatment, it's waaaaay scarier…"

Another pause.

"I'm not a bad boy!" He suddenly protested, his childish voice ringing loudly in the dead silent forest. "_You_ told me to do this!"

_You? Who's 'you'?_ Machi pondered as she crept in the shadows of the forest while staying in perfect Zetsu state. The boy ducked his head with a sad look on his Kurapika-look-alike face.

"But I really want to see _him_…"

Machi felt her heart stopped beating for a long second. For the first time, Meta mentioned a 'him', and with an emphasis on the word no less. Come to think of it, he had only mentioned his mother so far. A surge of unfamiliar excitement engulfed Machi as she felt that she was really on the right track. Now she was really determined to let her Danchou know about this Meta boy.

Meta wandered in the forest in a seemingly aimless way, but after a while Machi realised that the boy had not been just taking random turns in his walk. As she took in her surroundings and tried to take the bearing of her current location, only then she realised that the boy had taken a shortcut through the forestry towards the Genei Ryodan headquarter at the outskirt of the metropolitan city.

"I'm hungry…" The boy suddenly declared.

He began looking around the surrounding. Machi figured that the boy would not be able to do anything since the forest was practically pitch-black. She was only able to see vaguely because she had adjusted her sight in darkness and because she had been trained to do it quick. However, again to her utmost surprise, the boy had little problems finding the abundant ripe fruits that were dangling from the branches of the trees. Even his tree-climbing skill was remarkable.

_What is this boy?_ Machi wondered with more urgency. The boy was too versatile to be just an ordinary little boy, even for a Kuruta. For a four-years-old boy, he had a frighteningly extraordinary motoric coordination of limbs—that in itself was already unnatural.

_Speaking of unnatural…_Machi suddenly gave herself a silent dry laugh. _Come to think of it, this kind of precocious motoric development is common in Ryuusei-gai._

That thought made her even more intrigued about Meta. His general development as a child matched that of a Ryuusei-gai child, albeit a more refined way.

Not long after the boy had finished his food-hunting and had his meagre dinner, Meta fell asleep on the grass among the shrub that obscured him from vision. Thinking that she did not want to waste her time watching over a 'sleeping beauty', Machi decided to leave.

She had not forgotten to attach her Nen string to him, though, so that she could track him down again whenever she wanted to.

* * *

Rotten luck. Kurapika Kuruta was really convinced that the fate was really mocking her. The first flight to Yorkshin City would depart from the God-forsakenly remote place only the next day at noon, and the flight would take at least 12 hours to reach the metropolitan city. Even if she was to take other immediate flights with transits, they would take far more hours than this direct flight anyway. Thus, she had no choice but to wait.

And waiting was never pleasant.

Deciding to spend the long stretching hours to calm down, Kurapika purchased the simplest outfit she could find around the airport. Her present outfit had been ragged from the mad horse-riding all the way from the Unicorn Tribe Village to the airport. She also took her time grooming her hair though in actuality she put little to no effort in it.

_At least_, she had reasoned,_ I look decent enough and unlike some street beggars._

She washed her face with the cold water from the tap in the public toilet. She had always done it to calm herself down. When she had acquired her first Scarlet Eyes back then in Yorkshin City (though it was later discovered to be a copy made by Coltopi), she had done the same thing. At that time, she was trying to quell the mixture of nervous excitement and sorrow. This time, what was she trying to quell?

Belatedly, Kurapika noticed that her hands had been shaking. She frowned at it. True that she had not been eating anything for who knew how long, but she could feel that the shaking was not due to hunger. It was from overwhelming anxiety and apprehension.

Kurapika turned off the tap and closed her eyes tight. She willed her minds to turn blank, to give it a short respite from the accumulating tension. After a few minutes had passed, she opened her eyes after she felt the trembling easing up but not entirely gone yet. She cast one glance at the mirror, and noticed how horrible she looked.

Though it was true that she had looked better than the previous hours, but still she looked painfully plain. Her skin was as pale as a white blank sheet of paper, her white shirt hanging loosely around her body as she could not find a better clothing there, her lips were pale and thin, while there were dark circles under her eyes. Kurapika gave a soft snort.

_And I do not accept you walking around in such ridiculous fashion when you are with me_, he had said when her boy-disguise had been shattered and he first found out that Kurapika was really a girl. Then he had forced her to buy new sets of girls outfit.

_Actually, I'm helping you fix your fashion sense_, he had once said when he was taking her to buy dress for attending Abelard Constantin's party.

"Looks like…" she muttered to her reflection on the toilet mirror with a small smile of irony gracing her pale visage, "you have failed, Kuroro."

At the same time, Kurapika failed to notice that her trembling had completely gone.

* * *

He heard it. He swore that he really heard it and it was not just his imagination or hallucination.

_Master…_

There it was again—those voices; those devilish voices that prickled his skin in the most eerie manner. The last time he heard them was five years ago, so why was he starting to hear them _now_, of all time?

_Master is nearby…Reunion…_

Kuroro stood rigid in the middle of the crowded street of Yorkshin City. He had just arrived there after taking a blimp. The moment he stepped out of the airport and blended with the crowds of the metropolitan city, a familiar consciousness started brushing against his minds. Following his instinct as he tracked down the source of that voice, he found himself walking towards the temporary headquarter of the Genei Ryodan.

The Spider Head frowned at this. Why was he hearing the voices of the demons of the Solomon Ring here in Yorkshin City; from the Genei Ryodan Headquarter, no less?

_Kurapika can't be here…_ he vaguely pondered. Knowing Kurapika, he was sure that she would want to stay away from the city that had hosted too many memories for her—for them.

Nonetheless, he was determined to find out what was going on. He remembered the last time when he had phoned Machi, she had sounded strange. With more sure and firm steps, Kuroro advanced towards the outskirt of the city, to the slum which was the Headquarter of the Genei Ryodan. Whatever was going on, he was going to deal with it.

That was all there was to it.

* * *

"I can't believe this is all happening…" She muttered pitifully while burying her face in her hands.

Fino sat behind the counter desk of her father's inn, wallowing in regret and guilt for allowing the disaster to happen. Kurapika had asked her to look after Meta while she was away to finish a certain job, but he had to disappear while in her custody. How would she face Kurapika later?

"Fino, this is not your fault… Meta went off without telling you." Her mother tried to soothe her.

"He _could not_!" Fino snapped back at her mother, her voice shaky and her eyes tearful. "He was _kidnapped_, Mom! Besides, he is only four years old!"

Fino then started sobbing furiously again as she blamed herself over and over again for Meta's disappearance. Really, she had nothing to say in her defence to Kurapika. If the Kuruta hated her for it, she could only accept the bitter truth because she really had been too reckless.

"Fino, you haven't been eating and sleeping properly. You can fall sick if you continue this way…" Her mother said while tugging at her sleeve gently.

"Let it happen. I don't care…" She muttered between her sobs.

Her parents exchanged worried glances with each other. Ever since they discovered that the little boy had gone missing, Fino had skipped most of her meals and had scarcely taken any sleeps. She could barely help around the inn as she had been so distraught she could not concentrate on her works.

The constricting silence in the room was suddenly and rudely broken by the ringing of Fino's cell phone. Hastily, Fino took out the gadget and read the message she had just gotten. It was short but it meant the world for her.

_**Sender**__: Shalnark_

_**Message**__: We found him._

Without any warnings whatsoever, Fino fainted out of immense relief.

* * *

"You slimy little liar." Machi hissed at the sandy-brown haired young man so belligerently that the latter was convinced that the former really intended to mutilate him on the spot.

"Chill, Machi. Chill! Relax! Calm down!" Shalnark inched away from the seething mad blue-haired young woman whose aura was practically screaming MURDER.

"How can I freaking _relax_ when I know that all these could have been prevented if you just had told us the truth!" She yelled at him.

"Err…" Shalnark cringed as her high-pitched yell assaulted his rather delicate eardrums. "Sorry?"

He could not possibly tell her that he had promised Fino not to tell anyone in the Genei Ryodan about Meta, could he?

"If saying sorry can resolve things, there won't be wars throughout history." She growled fiercely at him, but did not make any concrete move of trying to strangle him to death with her Nen strings.

"Rather than arguing about that, I think the best thing you do right now is to keep your volumes down." Franklin said with unbelievably gentle voice.

Machi gave Shalnark a dirty look and an ugly scowl but keep her mouth shut. The muscles around Shalnark's mouth twitched nervously upon receiving such hostility from the female Spider, but he too kept his mouth close. They both averted their gazes to the door that separated them with two certain people. All of the Spiders—even including Coltopi and Bonolenov who usually seemed like they did not give a damn about whatever was happening around them unless Kuroro said anything to them—had their eyes trained to that particular door. If looks and gazes could be materialised, the door would have been a beehive by then.

All of them could scarcely believe that a very strange incident had just happened there in front of the doorstep of their Headquarter.

Most of the Spiders had been staying inside the dilapidated building of the abandoned compound at the slum of the metropolitan city, waiting for their Danchou to arrive to mark the start of their meeting. However, instead of the raven-haired man with jet-black coat and cross birthmark on his forehead, a little blond boy had barged into the place.

xXx

The Spiders had been lax with his presence in the vicinity because they knew by the quality of the Nen that it was only a little kid that had gotten lost in the building. Ordinary children would never be able to find their specific meeting room—which was a kind of spacious storage room—because not only that the entrance was most obscured in the entire building, the Spiders had also taken the initiative to conceal the entrance even more. The boy's invasion into their space was of course something that set off their alarms.

Out of reflex, all of them sprung to their feet; startling the poor boy even more. He already had a frightened-to-death expression on his face when he dramatically entered the room, but all colour was drained from his face the moment he saw slightly-less-than-a-dozen people on their feet on stand-by mode, ready to pounce at him at any given time.

For a moment the boy stopped and hesitated, but when he heard the loud shouts and yells from behind him, he seemed to make up his mind and bolted right into the heart of the room. Soon enough, a bunch of grown-up men invaded the room as well.

"Get that fucking boy!"

"He's cornered! Get 'im!"

As if sensing that they were not actually part of this little drama, all of the Spiders had wisely retreated into the depth of the shadows of the dingy room. They all went into Zetsu state in order to avoid getting detected, despite recognising that none of the brawny men were any Nen-users. It was always better to be prudent despite the hassle now than sorry later.

"Where to hide? What to do?" The little blond boy squeaked as he cast panicky glances around the place. "Use the Shadow Steps technique? Are you sure?"

Then, much to the surprise of the Spiders that were present in the room, the boy did a move that they recognised as the trademark technique of the underworld assassins. It was a move that allowed the user to blend with the surroundings and melting into the shadows of the room to avoid being detected. However, the little boy had yet to master it completely. For the Spiders' trained eyes, they all could see clearly where he was and where he was going, but for the untrained eyes of those non-Nen-users, the best they could see of him was fleeting, passing shadows.

In silence the Spiders observed the boy's actions. He had moved past most of the men, and was heading to the only exit of the room. However, he had barely reached the door when suddenly a new wave of Nen surged into the room. The Spiders then knew that the Nen-users of that rowdy group had arrived. Talk about bad timing.

The only thing that Meta recognised before he collided against the concrete wall was a sharp pain in his ribs. He fell into a heap into the dirty floor of the storage room and found himself gasping frantically for air. Meta writhed and curled into a tight ball as he clutched his abused side. After a while of absorbing the pain and shock, tears started falling from his eyes as he openly whimpered and sobbed. He was only four years old; all those were almost too much for him.

"Ye bunch of incompetent fools! He almost got away if not for me!" A man entered the room with a highty-mighty air around him.

The other small fries quickly scampered away as he barked at them to go get the other stray children in the streets.

The man was practically a walking mass of muscles. Everyone in the world was free to see the full texture of his muscles bulging all over his body. Another man entered the room with derisive snickers. He was thin like a twig, his body bent in an odd angle that gave him the impression of a haunting figure. He glided on the floor, his feet shuffling almost noiselessly as he approached the blond boy sprawled on the dirt.

"You are one slimy little boy, aren't you? Like an eel." The thin, spectre-like man said while nudging the boy's head with the tip of his shiny-polished shoe.

His companion; the bulky man, approached him and stared at him disinterestedly before sending another kick on Meta's stomach. Meta doubled up and vomited the content of his stomach inadvertently. The men gave a disgusted snort. The hulk of a man then bent down and picked him up by grabbing a handful of Meta's soft golden hair. He lifted him up like lifting a mere bag.

"Careful, or you'll damage him beyond repair and his value will decrease." The lanky sceptre-like man said uncaringly but the other man paid no mind to his words as if the content was insignificant and inconsequential.

Meta futilely tried to pry the man's rough fingers off his hair and his tiny legs flailed frantically in the air. He kept yelling and shouting at the man to let go of him, his tears still streaming down his plump cheeks ceaselessly and his sobs making his words almost incoherent. The men sniggered at the boy's attempt.

"Give it a rest, lad. Yer comin' with us. That's final." The man said while scrutinising the boy. "He's pretty. He's gonna fetch us a handsome price, eh?"

"Sure he will." The spectre-like man said with ghostly voice.

Fear and anger welled up inside the four-years-old, and he could not contain himself any longer. Snapping his eyes open in attention, he directed his blazing Scarlet Eyes in the direction of those two men. It was both a bad and good move.

It was a bad move because the men gasped in surprise, and their surprise very soon enough turned into joy. They had not expected to catch a Kuruta boy! Not to mention that rumours had it that the Kuruta Tribe had already perished from the surface of the Earth. They would be multi-millionaire by selling this boy!

It was a good move because his Scarlet Eyes pushed the Spiders into action. The first one to make a move had been Franklin.

"Hold it." He said to the men with his deep calm voice.

Franklin's sudden presence in the room startled the lives out of the two Nen-users. They both spun around on their heels and all colours were drenched from their faces. Franklin regarded them with even eyes.

"I'm afraid that _we_ have some business with that little boy. I advise you to let go of him and leave this place." He stated without advancing towards them.

The spectre-like man recovered from his shock first. He then laughed at Franklin in the most mocking way.

"Who do you think you are? You don't talk to us like that. You might have caught us by surprise, but that's all. We don't take orders from anyone else." The man said while waving an impatient, dismissive hand.

Franklin frowned unhappily at him.

"I'm suggesting so for your own good. But since you are not listening…"

Answering to their cue, the other Spiders stepped out of the shelter of the dark shadows of the storage room. The two men stood frigid in their spots. They were so many of them and the two of them had failed to detect all of them?

"People like you are really a pain in the butt." Phinks said while cracking his knuckles.

"You are here just in time. I'm already getting bored to death of waiting for Danchou." Feitan said with a cruel snicker as he stepped forward.

Shizuku was already readying her Deme-chan for final clean-up. Kalluto, Coltopi and Bonolenov opted to stay out of the ruckus and became silent observers, as they usually were. Silently Nobunaga unsheathed and brandished his katana while his eyes were fixed on the blond boy in the huge man's grip. He could not deny the fact that the little boy was almost like a tiny doppelganger of the Kuruta. They were unnervingly alike.

Seeing that they were surrounded and clearly outnumbered, the huge man decided to use the little boy as their hostage. He curled his calloused hand around the fragile neck of Meta.

"S—stay back or I'll kill this boy!" He yelled, trying to be as convincing as possible but his voice still faltered.

"You will do no such thing." Nobunaga let out a nasty growl. If the boy was really who he suspected he really was; like Machi had once stated, then he was not going to let the boy die—at least not before he had confirmed his identity and pedigree.

He looked at the boy again; who happened to be looking in his direction as well. With tearful Scarlet Eyes, the boy was giving him the plea of SOS. Meta chocked as he sobbed since the man's hand around his neck prevented him from breathing properly. Nobunaga frowned at this. He did not feel good seeing the boy in such state. That was weird; usually he did not give a damn about others outside the Genei Ryodan circle, but the little boy…

"Hands off."

A voice as cold as the frozen water of the South Pole reached the two Nen-users' ears, whispering underlying death-threat to them. When the men spun around, they found themselves facing a small blue-haired woman with sharp merciless eyes. One of her hands was raised and seemed like holding something invisible. She gave them murderous look. Upon getting no response whatsoever from them, Machi frowned even deeper in displeasure.

"I said." She stated again, her voice steely. "Hands. Off."

Then she made a slight pulling motion with her raised hand. The hulk of a man did not feel a thing until he heard the loud thud of something landing on the floor below him. When he looked down, he saw a dismembered arm lying uselessly on the floor, with the half-conscious boy whom he had been holding just a moment before. That arm looked familiar.

"EAAARRGGH!"

The man then let out a howl of agony as he realised the endless stream of deep red blood flowing out of what remained of his arm. That blood showered Meta, dyeing him completely crimson. His companion stared in horror as he witnessed the terrible amount of blood that was coming out of his friend's dismemberment. Without even trying to act all highty-mighty as he had done just a moment ago, the spectre-like man tried to dash out of the premise.

He had scarcely stepped out of the doorstep when suddenly he found himself inside the storage room again. He looked around and noticed the same faces that were looking at him with empty expressions. If anything, he caught the sentence "you are done for" written on their faces, directed for him. Panicking, he ran towards the door again, ignoring the fact that he might look ridiculous in their eyes.

Again, he found himself back in the same spot as before. The Spiders were already looking bored at his attempt of escaping. His companion; that hulk of a man, was still writhing in the floor, cradling his severed arm like cradling his child. The small woman from earlier was looming like an intimidating statue towards before him, the look on her face showing that she was contemplating whether to reward him with a quick death or torture him to death.

For the third time, the sceptre-like man attempted escape and _again_ he found himself in the same room. The difference this time was that his companion was already a goner, and there was an extra person in the room. The person—a raven-haired man donning a black coat with white furs on the collar, a peculiar insignia on his forehead, and slick-back hair—was staring at him with his cold, polished obsidian eyes of his. In his hand was a red bounded book. The sceptre-man noticed the subtle surge of Nen that was emitting from that newcomer. That raven-haired man was the one who had been making a fool out of him, but since when and from where?

Suddenly, he felt like he was such a foolish kid who was trying to show off to the adults around him but failed miserably and pathetically.

Kuroro eyed the sceptre-like man with calculating eyes, no expression whatsoever on his stony face. The sceptre-like man shrunk a bit upon being graced by his penetrating glare. Kuroro looked at the dead boy of the huge man on the floor, and then to him. Finally, the Spider Head turned to his Spiders; who had been waiting for his order, and nodded his head.

"You can have him."

The last thing that the sceptre-like man remembered before eternal oblivion swallowed him and before the brief sensation of his body being ripped apart was the evil smirks that graced the people surrounding him.

As his Spiders did their job of tearing the man apart, Kuroro turned to the little blond boy lying unconsciously on the floor. Meta had seemed to pass out from the pain. Machi observed silently as her Danchou knelt before the small figure and hoisted him into his arms; him never minding the blood that stained his perfectly clean outfit. With one sweep of his hand, he wiped away the blood that smeared the pale face of the boy.

His face betrayed nothing of the gnawing emotion in his heart. He could not put a name on it, but he knew that he would go over it soon enough—as soon as he had proven that his suspicion was right. With one hand, he searched the boy for one item. He checked his fingers, his pockets, and finally around his neck. When he felt the cold touch of metals around the boy's neck, Kuroro smiled grimly.

_Bingo._

As he pulled the metal, the necklace stumbled out of the shirt that had been concealing it from attention. The metal chains clinked softly in his hand while his dark eyes were fixed at the Solomon Ring that seemed like glaring to him.

* * *

Kurapika could not stop fidgeting in her seat inside the blimp that was flying leagues above the sea level. She cast anxious glances over the window, but the only thing she could see was the endless stretching ocean and the puffy clusters of clouds that were scattered all over the clear blue sky. Despite the marvellous weather outside, inside of her was a thunderstorm and hurricane of worry and restlessness.

_Yorkshin…Why does it have to be Yorkshin?_ She muttered to herself.

Yorkshin City was a place that she wished to avoid at all costs if possible. It was where she first met Kuroro, and that was the start of her bad lucks. The place hosted too many memories for her, she would not want to relive them again. However, what could she do now? Meta was there, and she had to come for him.

Kurapika looked down at the onyx-silver ring on her ring finger. The dim light of the small private room of the blimp was reflected dully by the dark stone. No matter how much she changed the angle of the ring, the reflection was always dull. It was never brilliant, as if the black stone absorbed all light that fell on it.

_Just like him…_Kurapika mused. _A being that takes everything for itself but scarcely gives away anything…_

Absentmindedly, Kurapika turned to gaze through the glass wall of the airport. There was nothing interesting outside at all, but she simply felt the need to distract herself with anything. After a while, she sighed heavily.

She wondered vaguely if this coming visit to the metropolitan city would create yet other memories or not.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__The title of the chapter is "Race" because it seems like everyone is racing, in a sense, to get to Meta at the same time. Couldn't think of any other better titles, so there it goes. What do you think? Too much of the story revolving around Meta? Can you relate to Meta or is he too out of the picture in this fic? I dunno, give me feedbacks, people. Personally, I think he's a sweet little boy. A real angel ^^ especially in Kurapika's life. The poor little boy actually went out his way to search for his father…Anyway, as for Meta's versatility in so many things, the reason behind it will be explained in the coming chapters. Don't worry, he won't be the 'Gary Stu' kind of character (male version of Mary Sue, if I'm not wrong) Though you are free to speculate the reasons behind it and tell me in your reviews ^^_

_And for reviewers… Dear, dear reviewers…THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORTS! Your supportive words for me and my studies and this fic really touch me *tearful* Thanks a lot!_

_**Next**__: Kuroro finally found the Solomon Ring, and it was worn as a necklace by Meta. By that fact alone, he seemed to know who the little boy was. What would he do about it? Denial or acceptance? _


	3. Chapter 2: Estranged

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own HunterxHunter _

_**Story so far: **__Kuroro had finally met with the enigmatic four-years-old Meta, but that was only because the Solomon Ring had been calling him. The moment he discovered the little boy holding the ring, he vaguely recognised the relation that he shared with the little blond boy. However, how would he deal with it?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 2**

_**ESTRANGED**_

_**

* * *

**_

_**Wake up, sleepyhead**_, the soft feminine voice nudged at the back of his mind.

_Five more minutes…_Meta responded sleepily.

_**Oh, come on. You have gone this far and have finally met him, and now you are going to spend five minutes just for a bit of sleep? What if he decides to leave within those precious five minutes?**_

That was all that Meta needed to kick him fully awake. With a snap, he opened his eyes and was about to sit up straight but the first thing that greeted him was the sharp shooting pain on his side. Being a four-years-old, he did not bother to conceal his expression of pain and so he let out quite a loud exclamation of agony. He tried to roll to the other unharmed side, but one of his arms was giving him another problem—the pain on it was numbing his senses. He felt as if his whole body was bruised with especially nasty bruises on his side and on his arm.

"Three broken ribs and a fractured arm." An unfamiliar voice told him from one side of the room.

Surprised and somewhat relieved to know that he was not alone—though the other person was a stranger to him—Meta turned his head to the direction of the voice. He found himself looking at a man in all-black attire with dark raven hair, obsidian eyes, and deceptively youthful face. His hair was let down, but partially hidden behind those black fringes was an odd-looking mark on the man's forehead. He was sitting on a chair near Meta's occupied bed, his elbows supported by his laps and his hands clasped together.

Meta looked at him with bewildered and lost expression. The boy did not understand the weight of that statement. Well, he was only four-years-old, what to expect from him?

"It's a miracle that you survived. How did you do it?" The man asked, his voice somewhat amused though his face remained a blank sheet of paper that betrayed nothing of whatever was within him.

Instead of answering him, Meta only looked at him with a strange expression on his face. It was a mixture of puzzlement, excitement, nervousness, curiosity, hopefulness, longing, and many others that an overly-knowledgeable four-years-old could afford. Without any second thoughts, Meta spontaneously tried to sit up again; forgetting the earlier bruise-like pain he had experienced when he had tried to move about.

He had barely lifted his head from the pillow when the soreness ravaged his entire small body. Again, he let out an open whimper of pain and tears inevitably escaped from his eyes. Out of reflex, he squeezed shut his eyes but then he felt a large hand rested on his chest the moment he curled up in pain. When he opened his eyes, the man was crouching over him, his expression still blank.

"It's best not to move for the time being." The man simply said, his hand still rested on Meta's chest as if to emphasise his point.

The four-years-old boy relaxed his body as he felt the firm touch of the man's hand penetrating the thin fabric of his shirt. The moment his hand came in contact with him, everything became clear to the little blond boy as he could feel it via the contact: the man was worried, yet he did not understand why. Or rather, he was ignorant to the fact that he was even feeling worried.

_**That's just what kind of man your father is**_, the voice in Meta's mind told him with slight amusement.

"What kind?" Meta thoughtlessly asked the voice out loud.

"What kind?" The man repeated with mild puzzlement on his face.

In that instant, Meta had a guilty expression on his face, which made the man frowned slightly.

_**Habits die hard. I told you so many times before not to talk to me out loud, Meta**_, the voice said again, half-reprimanding him. _**Especially not when your father is around. I don't want him to find out about me just yet.**_

_**

* * *

**_

Kuroro did not understand it.

The little blond boy called Meta—as Machi had told him—was the exact replica of Kurapika, except for his eyes. It was as if seeing a toddler Kurapika wearing deep blue contact lens. Most curiously, while his Spiders had considered the little boy as an uncanny existence, he had been most…unnervingly comfortable with it. It was as if he had somewhat anticipated it.

Which he did not.

He observed the boy's appearance from his seat silently. His hair was caked with dry blood, and half of his outfit had been re-dyed dark crimson. Kuroro had taken the liberty of cleaning his face so that he could take a good look at his full facial feature. That was not the sole reason, though. With all the blood all over Meta, it only served as a reminder of the Mammon incident—he preferred not to remember the details of that occasion. Kuroro had frighteningly good memory; if he recalled an event for too long, all the details would inundate him without fail.

Truth to be told, that Mammon incident was the only time that he had ever felt truly agitated. It was not a pleasant thing, and he had no wish to experience it again. The Solomon Ring in his hand burned cold against his skin, as if trying to revive that rare moment when he lost control of his self. He frowned at it, and clasped the ring even tighter.

Looking at Meta again, he wondered on how the little boy could withstand such assaults on him by those two barbaric Nen-users. Normal children his age would have died from the shock. Even if they survived, they would suffer from some kind of trauma afterwards. Somehow, Kuroro had the feeling that the blond boy would have no problems handling the trauma—if he had any, that is. From what Machi had told him, the boy seemed to be a very interesting character. And beyond normal.

Just as he concluded that he would observe Meta further, the boy in question stirred. It was about time that he would be up—it was already closing to evening. At first he frowned a bit; it was a frown that gave the impression "I don't wanna wake up yet" that most children gave when their parents nagged at them to get up. Then, in less than a heartbeat, he attempted to spring into a sitting position. He ended up doubling up and crying out in pain.

"Three broken ribs and a fractured arm," he had informed him, gaining Meta's attention consequently.

The boy gave him a clueless expression, and Kuroro felt a hint of disappointment. According to Machi's story, the boy seemed to be extraordinarily intelligent for his age-group.

Kuroro started asking him on how he could survive the abuse, but the boy still did not respond to him. Or rather, he seemed to be so distracted that the question did not seem to even reach him. He found Meta staring at him with myriad of emotions in those rich deep blue sapphire eyes. He, in turn, observed those emotions. He saw nervousness and perplexity; those were understandable. But were those excitement and longing that he saw? Was he seeing hopefulness in those eyes as well?

_Why is he hopeful about?_ Kuroro wondered.

For the second time, the boy attempted to abruptly sit up straight again and for the second time he failed yet again. Consequently, he writhed and whimpered in pain. Kuroro frowned at this. As much as he was aware that the boy was not Kurapika, he could not help but to imagine his face contorting in pain as Kurapika's—after all, they were so much alike, like two peas in a pod.

Suddenly, Kuroro found his self leaving his seat and putting a hand on the boy's chest, somewhat restraining him down.

"It's best not to move for the time being," was all that he could think of saying.

The gesture worked wonders. The boy almost instantly calmed down and lay down still on the bed. He turned very docile and peaceful, but his eyes were ever fixed on Kuroro's face; observing him intensely and with a look that indicated that he was searching for something from Kuroro's face, or expression in that matter. Kuroro ignored it, but he could no more do that the moment the boy suddenly chirped:

"What kind?"

"What kind?" He had echoed after the blond boy in a bewildered manner. What was the boy talking about?

The boy immediately clamped shut his mouth; pressing it until it formed only a thin line and there was a huge expression of guilt all over his face. Kuroro frowned at this. Meta looked like he had done something terribly wrong; but perhaps it had not been anything big. Children tended to exaggerate things, and Kuroro suspected that the boy—no matter how intelligent he was as Machi had insisted on—was highly likely not an exception.

"Sorry. I won't do that again." The boy suddenly said again.

"Do what?" Kuroro asked, his frowns deepening.

This time, the boy covered his mouth with his both hands with an even grander guilty look on his face. He even blushed as an indication of embarrassment at his own mistake; whatever that mistake was. Meta shook his head vigorously, as if saying that it was nothing and that he did not have to pay any mind to it.

_Interesting…_Kuroro mused to himself.

Slowly, Kuroro sat down on the edge of the bed without averting his attention from Meta's face. He removed his hand from his chest but the moment the contact was broken, a pair of small hands grabbed his hand. He looked down to his hand and found those hands that looked so frail and delicate compared to his. He shifted his line of sight slightly up again and noticed the blatant fearful look on the boy's face—it was as if Meta was afraid that he would go away.

Kuroro, being himself, did not really grasp the reason behind Meta's fearfulness. Nevertheless, he saw the boy struggling to sit up straight again and this time he offered a help. Once he was up, Meta sat on his knees so that he was at eye-level with Kuroro. Dark obsidian eyes stared right into sapphire blue eyes. After a while of the staring competition, Meta reached out and touched Kuroro's face.

The gesture took Kuroro by surprise, but he did nothing to make the boy stop. He let the boy touched his face, the longing face very apparent on Meta's face. Kuroro could even see the little blonde's lips quivering a bit.

"Dad?" Meta finally asked with tiny, hopeful voice.

Kuroro gave him a small wistful smile. It sounded so strange and alien to his ears; but most of all it was ironic. He had never remembered anything about his biological father, and he practically grew up without a proper father figure (Anansi did NOT qualify as a father figure in his opinion).

Of course he knew that Meta was his son. There were many reasons to back up that conclusion. First of all, there was the remarkable healing capability that the boy possessed. The 'three broken ribs and one fractured arm' information had been an outdated one; those injuries had healed before the boy even woke up. The pain that Meta was experiencing was really only the remnants of soreness from those injuries; nothing more.

Kuroro had no doubt that the cause of that healing capability could only be the fact that the boy had Ishtar's blood in him—and in a great extent, that is. It was irrefutable that Meta was Kurapika's son—as blood would tell, judging from the resemblance they shared—but if he had not been the father, the boy might not acquire the extraordinary healing capability. Reason being: Ishtar's essence that was passed down to the boy from Kurapika alone would not have been enough to bequeath that ability on him. Kuroro's genes and Ishtar's essence from him—which was much more dominant than Ishtar's essence in Kurapika; him being the first direct recipient of Ishtar's blood—had a major role in granting Meta that ability.

Second: it was the Solomon Ring. The fact that Kurapika gave the ring to the boy was enough proof that the boy was related to him. The moment he heard the Solomon Ring's devilish voice calling at him and at the same time feeling via his Nen that Kurapika was not anywhere nearby, he concluded that someone had to be holding it in her place. He doubted that she would ever tell anyone about the Solomon Ring—not even her three best friends—except if that person was directly related to him; the true owner of the ring.

Third: he simply knew it. As the proverb went; blood was thicker than water—even an estranged father like him could recognise his own flesh and blood, albeit the child bore no resemblance to himself.

"I suppose I am," he said with husky voice, but inwardly he had no idea on what else he had to say.

Then it came: Meta's eyes turned scarlet.

At first Kuroro was startled. Not only that he had not been expecting to see his Scarlet Eyes, but he saw no reason for the boy to be so emotional that his eyes would turn scarlet. Then again, come to think of it, Meta was only four-years-old child, so of course he was emotional; especially so when he had just finally met his long lost father—one that he had wanted to meet so badly since long time ago.

Silently, with only one suppressed hic, Meta rushed to him and buried his face into the fabric of Kuroro's black shirt. The said man was caught completely off-guard by this gesture of affection and had involuntarily held his breath. He had not seen it coming.

Nevertheless, seeing the mop of similar but different golden hair beneath his chin, his old habit resurfaced and he began twiddling with some of the delicate strands of Meta's hair as he relaxed. While he did so, he could physically feel Meta sinking further into him; like a snuggling cat.

They stayed that way for a few more minutes, before finally Meta broke the pin-drop silence:

"I'm Metatron."

Kuroro absentmindedly nodded.

"So that's your real name?"

"Not my full name."

"That will be Metatron Kuruta, correct?"

Meta shook his head, and Kuroro blinked. He stopped twiddling with Meta's hair and looked down at the little blond boy. Meta still had not looked up to see him; his hands still clutching at Kuroro's shirt while his head was still rested against kuroro's chest.

"It's Metatron Lucifer Kuruta."

* * *

"Killua! Over here!"

The said boy and his spiky black-haired companion turned around and spotted a lanky man in glasses waving his hand vigorously from the other end of the airport hall. Their eyes lit up and they hurried to approach the older male.

"Any news?" Leorio asked them when they were close enough to hear him.

"Yeah!" Gon answered enthusiastically. "We managed to call Kurapika once. She said she is flying from Erin."

"From where?" Leorio blinked, not recognising the name of the place.

"Erin. The continent somewhere east from here, or so she said." Killua shrugged. "It seems that she's already informed of Meta's disappearance. Don't know who told her, though."

"Well, at least she knows and on her way here. When will she be here?" Leorio asked, eager to take actions.

"It's a long flight. Her blimp will only arrive here this evening at best, if everything goes smoothly." Killua said dryly, unhappy with the prospect of waiting for half a day.

"That's a damn long time!" Leorio exclaimed.

"Precisely." The Zaoldyk teenager clicked his tongue, expressing his impatience as well. "What do you propose we do in the meantime?"

"Shouldn't we be looking for Meta? It'll be good if we can find him before Kurapika reaches here." Gon piped in.

"I suppose so…" Killua muttered.

Somehow, he had the feeling that it would not be that easy to find that little blond boy. Killua and Gon were Meta's first mentors aside from Kurapika herself. While Gon taught him basic survival skills in forests and wilderness, Killua taught him handy moves that he had learned during his childhood as assassin. Kurapika had not protested about it. In fact, she was grateful that they were willing to impart their hard-earned (in a way) skills to the boy. The more skills the boy had at his disposal, the better it was for his survival.

Meta was a quick learner, incredibly so. He could be a little strange and quirky for a four-old boy (considering Meta's parentage, Killua knew he should not be that surprised) at times with his frequent soliloquy, though. If Meta had really learned everything they taught him by heart, it would be a hard task to find the little boy among the crowds of the metropolitan city. That would be like trying to a needle in a stack of hays.

"Well, no pains no gains. Let's give it a shot." Killua declared, and the trio made their way into the city.

* * *

"You sure you wanna bring the kid along? This is no family trip or some picnics, you know. What if something happens to him along the way?" A bespectacled tall young man said with his hands akimbo while facing a smaller-built young woman before him.

Kurapika waved a dismissive hand to Leorio's face; showing her unwillingness to discuss the topic further.

"I've made up my mind. The two of us will be fine."

The Kuruta girl had decided that she would be taking her toddler along for her business trip. That was indeed not a very wise thing to do, but Kurapika had her reasons and circumstances. She felt insecure leaving behind her three-and-a-half-years-old boy alone; even at the care of her best friends. She simply wanted him to be close to her; where she could really look after him physically.

"We can take care of him, you know. Just leave him in our place, or even Fino's! You don't really _have_ to take him along, right?"

With a huff, Kurapika spun on her heels to face Leorio, her expression was that of a highly displeased one.

"Leorio, give it a rest! I know what I'm doing so will you just leave me alone?"

The said man; who was already getting impatient at the Kuruta's stubbornness, let his tongue get the better of his mannerism.

"Oh yeah? That's not very credible, considering that coming from someone who have a kid born out of wedlo—"

Leorio clasped his own mouth with his hand, a look of profound horror was apparent on his now-ashen white face. He had uttered the ultimately wrong thing, and he knew it. Kurapika's expression did not help to ease his guilt. She looked as if he had sliced her heart with his righteous scalpel right where there was on old wound, sew it back together and then slice at it all over again. Gon and Killua were jaw-dropped, both uncaring of the fact their mouths were big enough for hordes of flies to enter.

When Kurapika finally shifted, she did not turn to walk away.

SLAP!

Well, at least not before she delivered a magnificent slap across Leorio's cheek that sent him flying across the room like he had been run over by a truck. Only then Kurapika turned to storm out of the room like a mad bull.

Gon was positively horrified upon beholding the violence that Kurapika had displayed. He had never seen such degree of mixture of rage and agony in Kurapika's eyes before, except when she was dealing with the Spiders years back. Killua could only stare at the doorway, and then back to the dying Leorio.

"You screwed up big time, Leorio. Really big time."

"Tell me about that..." Leorio squeaked.

"Shouldn't we go after Kurapika? What if she does something reckless?" Gon asked worriedly.

"If you go after her, Gon, you'll be the reckless one. Well, unless you want to end up like Leorio over there, that is." Killua said lightly. "Besides, I think Leorio is in more immediate danger of dying right now."

"Um... No thanks." Gon gave a nervous laugh. "And yeah, I think you're right. Oh, is that blood coming out of Leorio's head?"

Meanwhile, Kurapika's stomps could be heard echoing throughout the whole apartment, even as she exited the building, people immediately made way for her. Her face was saying 'murder' all the while she walked furiously away from the apartment.

The true feeling welling inside her was none of anger, but more of hurt and guilt.

_Thank you for enlightening me that I'm such a wretched, shameless woman, Leorio. Really thanks._ Kurapika muttered vehemently in her minds as she blinked her eyes in attempt to squeeze back the tears that were pooling in her eyes.

Soon enough, her vision turned blurry.

Really, Leorio had not needed to tell her explicitly how despicable her action had been—that she had slept with Kuroro Lucifer in exchange of her freedom. He needed not condemn her lower than she already did to herself since eons ago.

Kurapika laughed at herself.

_Since when have I been this weak, both in mind and body? Since when do I have such weak resolution? _

Once Kurapika reached the safe sanctuary of the garden near Leorio and co.'s apartment, her pace slowed down.

_Since when have I been unable to deny him? Damn you, Kuroro. Damn you for ruining my life—both in the past and now. _

Despite her hateful words, there were no heartfelt contempt in those words—and Kurapika knew that. She was not fooling herself. She just...needed someone to blame for. Things were never the same anymore, not since the 'accursed' travel across the world with the Spider Head.

With a heavy sigh, Kurapika stopped and sat down on one of the garden benches with a flop. She stared down at the orderly pebbles beneath her feet, her thoughts flying back to the time five years ago; to a certain memorable night.

Come to think of it, she had been willing to do it. She had given her consent at that time when he had asked for her permission, albeit most indirectly. Why was she blaming him now? How unfair of her. Why was she refuting her own resolution she had made at that time—when she had decided that it was really her desire to be with him?

Kurapika laughed again at herself, this time louder and mocking.

_Dammit, Kuroro..._ she said to herself.

"Mom?"

The small, gentle voice of a little boy snapped her back to reality. She did not respond to him because she knew that if she was to answer immediately, her voice would be shaky and she did not want her son to see her in such weak state. Taking her time to calm down, she sat still as Meta approached her.

When she still did not respond to his presence, Meta wedged his body against her, hugging her with his tiny arms. Kurapika instantly relaxed when she felt Meta's soft and warm arms around her, and she intuitively hugged him back. She then began stroking his golden hair.

"Mom?" Meta repeated with husky voice.

"Hmm?" She hummed as she buried her nose into the mop of his hair.

"I think you miss Dad more than I do."

Kurapika looked down to her son with utter shock clear on her face.

"Also," the little boy continued, as if he had not noticed the look on his mother's face, "I think you need Dad more than I do."

xXx

"Miss? Miss, are you alright?"

A soft nudge on her shoulder jolted her awake from her tired sleep. She jerked into a straight sitting position and cast a wild look to her surrounding. Her gaze finally landed on the surprised air steward who had just woken her up.

"Miss, are you fine?" The steward; a middle-aged man, repeated his question with genuine concern in his voice.

"I…I'm fine." Kurapika answered with hoarse voice.

"Did you have a sad dream?" He asked again with softer voice.

Kurapika turned to give him a puzzled look, but nonetheless she brought up her hand to touch her cheeks. How surprised she was to feel a warm wetness on her face. Kurapika looked at her wet fingers and her face went blank. The air steward gave her a sympathising small smile.

"Should I get you something to drink that can soothe you, perhaps?" He offered.

Kurapika nodded rather absentmindedly.

"That will be much appreciated." She replied monotonously.

The air steward nodded once and went away to get something for her. Meanwhile, Kurapika still had her eyes fixed on the salty liquid on her fingers. Why had she cried? Why did she dream of a past event?

Yes, it was not just a mere dream. It was a reality that was relived in her dream in a frightening exactness.

She remembered her minds growing numb when she heard Meta's words. Somehow, hearing it from the little boy broke her heart. Had she been so transparent about her emotions that even a three-and-a-half-years-old boy could see right through her?

Or was it really Meta's uncanny empathic ability?

* * *

"_Blood is the life. Blood is the truth. Divine her location with her blood, and you shall not lose your way."_

That was what Druid Olaf had told her, and she had even gone to collect the arrows that had embedded that cut on Kurapika's shoulder. She had put the said arrow on the ground, chanted some words that the Druid had briefly taught her and made her memorise before she went on her journey. The spell worked, and the arrow spun by itself. At first it only rotated slowly, and then it took up more speed, and then after briefly reaching its terminal speed it abruptly stopped with the arrow head pointing to a certain direction.

Yorn had been pleased that she had managed to work the spell, but she was uncertain if she had said the correct wordings. What if she had said something slightly wrongly and the arrow pointed to the _opposite_ direction? She would be travelling across the world before she could even reach that Kuruta. At worst, if that happened the Kuruta might have been dead for weeks when she had finally reached her.

_No, no, no. Dear Morrigan, please don't let that happen!_ Yorn vehemently prayed in her heart while crossing her fingers. If Kurapika really died by her poison, she would be disowned by her family! Yorn had to preserve in saving the Kuruta's life, and her resolution was absolute. However…

"How am I going to accomplish that if there is a freaking OCEAN that I have to cross?" She yelled to nobody in particular as she stood by the seashore, her voice echoing in the emptiness of the beach.

Frustrated, Yorn went down the beach and kicked the sand irritably with her legs. She had tried walking down the long beach in hope to see some boats or other means of transportation for her to cross the ocean but there was none. As she kept kicking the poor sand while mumbling curses underneath her breath, a thought suddenly crossed her mind.

_Hey, I can ask the spirits to transport me there!_

With renewed determination, Yorn knelt on the sand and began drawing rune symbols to call forth the Sylph; the elementals of air. She would fly across the ocean to the other continent—but that would only happen if she did draw the right runes and said the correct wordings. That was precisely the problem: Yorn hardly ever paid proper attention in her rune class.

"Let's see… This ought to do." She muttered as she straightened up and studied her handiwork on the sand. Praying again that everything would go well, Yorn began chanting the spell.

"_Paralda, King of Sylphs! I call you by your true name, so answer to your summon and appear before me!_"

The wind in the beach suddenly stirred and twisted. The gentle breeze turned into strong gust, as if it was heralding the arrival of a magnificent being—and magnificent being it was that appeared. Yorn could physically feel the wind knotting and dancing around her, the seawater lapping and swaying in a certain pattern that she failed to decipher. Before long, a figure materialised from thin air.

It was a beautiful man with very delicate stature and body. He looked more like a boy than a king, his face youthful and smooth like a baby's without the rough line and angular texture of an adult male's face. His hair was pale gold, draping like a silken curtain that reached his shoulder. A simple yet significant circlet adorned his head, with an emblem that showed his status as the King of Sylphs. Tiny women; the Sylphs, accompanied him as he floated above the water surface. His transparent scarf billowed around him, dancing the wind's rhythm.

_Why have you summoned me, little girl?_ The King said in a voice that resembled a boy's; soft and wispy, but most importantly it was gentle like the caress of a breeze.

"I need to cross the sea, to the direction that the arrow indicates." Yorn said while pointing at the said item with her thumb.

The King of Sylphs looked at the arrow lying on the ground, and smiled.

_That will be west, girl._

"Yeah, whatever." Yorn said impatiently.

_You are a huntress yet you can't tell the compass direction?_ The King snickered, but there was no derision in it, only playfulness. The Sylphs giggled along with their king.

Yorn's face burned in embarrassment. The King of Sylph had been right on the money. She had always had the difficulties to tell south from north, east from west. Basically, she really was very, very bad with compass direction. Lazmorgh even had the gall to call her a 'domestic huntress'. That jerk…

"Oh, be quiet, Paralda." She said while stomping her foot. "Are you going to help me or not?"

_Very well, Unicorn girl. I shall aid you in your quest, _said graceful king of the air elementals.

He lifted up his thin arms and the Sylphs around him giggled and danced. Before long, Yorn could feel herself experiencing a sense of weightlessness. She found herself floating, her feet not touching the solid ground. Her stomach knotted in the most unpleasant way and in that instant she knew that she had done the wrong thing—she was already air-sick.

She should have made a boat and asked the Sylphs to move the boat instead of levitating _her_ and transported her all the way across the ocean. However, what was done was done. She could not take back her order. As the Sylphs spirited her away from her home continent, she let out a grand, unbecoming-of-a-lady "Ueeergh!"—which made Paralda laughed in amusement.

_Be strong and brave, girl. The journey will not be long,_ he tried to soothe her.

_I'd prefer that this will finish in three seconds,_ Yorn told herself grudgingly, but she knew that would not happen. So the only thing she could do was to bear with it.

* * *

Her arm was on fire. It felt like an itch under her skin that she could not really scratch. The burning sensation at first was negligible, but as hours passed by, it was becoming more and more noticeable. The lack of activities in the blimp compounded to the intensity of the unpleasantness as she could not help but to focus on her arm since there was nothing else to distract her.

At first she only attempted to alleviate the itchiness by rubbing her arm. However, over time the itchiness grew into a burning sensation that spread from her shoulder. Kurapika then noticed that the vocal point of the itchiness had been the cut on her shoulder that she had gotten from the confrontation with Yorn.

She tried to ignore it, unwilling to become too paranoid over such small scratch. However, as hours went by and the burning sensation intensified, she could not help but to check it. Kurapika rolled up her sleeve and peered at her shoulder.

How horrified she was when she found the skin around the cut on her shoulder had turned sickly blue. The cut was still open but there was no blood oozing from the shallow wound. There was no infection, no gangrene; no physical abnormalities except for the bluish tint on her skin.

"This is…" Kurapika did not now of what was happening to her arm. One thing for sure, she got it from Yorn's apparently poisonous arrow.

Without thinking further, Kurapika summoned forth her Holy Chain and she began attempting to cure her ailing arm. Minutes passed by, but nothing happened. Kurapika frowned at this—such occurrence never happened before. Her Holy Chain could even mend a thoroughly broken arm—like when Uvogin shattered the bone of her entire arm—but now it could not even purge a poison out of her system? Was her Nen the problem, or was it the poison?

_It may be a special type of poison. One that's designed to nullify Nen power._ Kurapika vaguely remembered that piece of information from her brief study of poison sometime in the past.

Kurapika glanced at the clock in alarm. It was still several more hours before the blimp reached Yorkshin. The blimp had an infirmary aboard, but she highly doubted it housed a remedy for whatever ailment she was having. She would have more chance of finding a cure or the likes in Yorkshin City. For the time being, it was best to stay put and did the least amount of activities possible so as not to speed up the spreading of the poison in her system.

_Strange…_ Kurapika pondered. _Ishtar's essence should've enhanced my immunity against poison, then why is this poison still prevailing? _

She had been taught of it by Hatsubaba long time ago, when the first time she had received blood transfusion from Kuroro when she had been dying. The wizened witch-doctor had deemed it necessary for her to at least be aware of the impact of Ishtar's blood on her health—though she had neglected telling her of the _other_ side-effects.

A few hours passed, and Kurapika's arm had grown entirely paralyzed.

* * *

Despite her cool countenance and her composure, Una was a worry-wart. She glanced to the coppery blue sky above as she cantered across the vast, exposed ocean surface between the continents. She could not spot the blimp that Kurapika was boarding at that moment, since the clouds had obscured it from her view. Regardless, Una was worried sick about how the Kuruta fared so far, since she had not been able to fulfil Kurapika's compelling request.

Kurapika had been desperate, very much so, when she came to her almost tearfully—Kurapika had _almost_ never shed any single tears for years. Such strength was terrifying for Una, who had soft heart. The black-horned unicorn understood the Kuruta's need for hardening her heart, but still…

_Una, can you take me across the ocean?_ That had been her request, and her voice had been tremulous when she said so.

Unfortunately, such performance was beyond Una's ability. Crossing gulfs and straits would be a piece of cake for her, even with riders mounting her. However, oceans were different issues. She could cross an ocean alone, but that feat itself would take up most of her energy. Taking a passenger across an ocean would be close to a foolhardy task, if not double-suicidal both for her and Kurapika.

Kurapika had been ultimately devastated to hear the news. She then related the fact that the first fastest flight—which was ridiculously 12 hours—to Yorkshin City would be at noon of the next day. Desperate as she was, Kurapika tried not to show it on the exterior and maintained her cool façade.

With another sigh, Una tore her gaze from the borderless sky and concentrated on her journey across the ocean to catch up with Kurapika. If she had kept her gaze to the sky above for a minute longer, she would have spotted a figure flying miles above the sea level, overtaking her towards the same direction as Una was heading to.

* * *

"How did you recognise me?"

That question had been bothering him to no end since the beginning. A four-years-old who never met his father even once could not possibly recognise his father after one glance—no matter how genius or intelligent the boy was. Meta looked at him with a look of puzzlement on his face; it was as if Kuroro had just asked a very obvious and simple question that he had no idea on how to answer it.

After a while, Meta opened his mouth but suddenly he cringed. This made Kuroro raise one eyebrow questioningly. The boy often did some random gestures that always seemed out of place—another issue that he had to ask Kurapika.

The reason for Meta's sudden cringe was none other than his 'imaginary friend'.

_**No, Meta. You MUST NOT tell him that you have heard of him from me, **_the voice inside his head said with such emphasis that the four-years-old could not help but to cringe a bit.

_Then what do I tell him?_ Meta had asked back.

Kuroro continued observing Meta. The little blond boy seemed like thinking deeply; as if he was listening intently to someone explaining some complex concept. He waited patiently while he continued studying the enigmatic boy. Machi was right—it was never boring to observe the boy's antics, and not to mention speculating the reasons behind those odd gestures.

"Mom showed me your picture." Meta finally answered after a long pause.

Kuroro could immediately detect that the boy was leaving a piece of information behind. The boy was a terrible liar—he always had a look of guilt in his face whenever he lied or whenever he was not telling _all _of the truth.

_Seems like the apple really never falls far from the tree,_ Kuroro mused in amusement. He was just like his mother; only that Kurapika had way much better acting skill than the boy did. No matter; he could _fix_ it later. As for Meta's strange answer…

"What picture?"

"A picture of you and Mom."

Kuroro gave a frown, and the little boy caught the "Elaborate," cue from his father.

"There's this picture of you sleeping on Mom's lap."

_Ah…_

"Did your mother tell you how she got that picture?" Kuroro was already taking out his cell phone.

"It was from a friend."

"A _friend_." Kuroro repeated as he dialled a number on his cell phone.

Meta could only blink. He did not understand why his father seemed so interested about the picture. A familiar voice chuckled inside Meta's head.

_**That's because he has a copy of it,**_the soft voice said with mild glee.

Meta stared at his father with wide eyes. He remembered those days as vividly as his four-years-old memory could. Meta remembered lying on his mother's bed, staring at a piece of photograph for the longest of time that if stare could materialise, the photograph would have had a huge hole on it. Those were the times when he longed to meet his father most, but he had never dared to voice it out loud to his mother. Despite her mother's strong exterior, Meta could physically feel her fragility on _certain_ topic.

Kuroro then beckoned at Meta to come closer, though the call had not been answered yet. The blond little boy obeyed, and Kuroro lowered the cell phone to him.

"Is this that_ friend_?"

While looking at Kuroro with grand bewilderment, Meta listened to the beeping sound of the unanswered called. When the call was finally answered, a voice rang from the loudspeaker.

_[Yo, _frate_ (brother)!]_

Meta's face lit up.

"Papa Lucian!"

* * *

Lucian looked at the Caller ID displayed on the screen of his cell phone. It spelled 'Kuroro Lucifer', but how come the voice speaking to him was ridiculously childish? Had the man caught a severe cold that rendered his voice that unrecognisable? But what was with that 'papa' part? Kuroro Lucifer never called him anything else but 'Lucian' and several others mild derogatory 'names'. That aside, imagining that stoic, ice block of a man calling him 'papa' sent a chill down his spine. And come to think of it, the voice sounded terribly familiar.

_[Papa Lucian!]_ The voice called out again with more excitement.

Something then clicked in the vampire's mind. There was only one person existing on Earth who would call him _that_.

"Meta! Where in the blazes are you?" Lucian exclaimed with worried voice, since he had learned of his disappearance lately. However, his worry was soon replaced by terror as he realised something dreadful. "B, but most importantly how did you—"

_[Lucian. So it was really you.]_ A flat, bass voice replaced Meta's chirpy voice and it spoke of underlying threat. Lucian could not help but to gulp.

"L—Lucifer." He stuttered.

_[I believe an explanation is in order.]_ Kuroro said deadpan. His tone was the one that said: 'I won't take a 'no' as an answer and you'd better give a damn good explanation, you weasel.'

"W—well… What do you want me to explain?"

Kuroro had not responded forthwith. He had wanted to ask about the picture, but then again considering that he got his from Lucian, he should have figured out that the quirky vampire would give Kurapika one as well. Satisfied with that logical reasoning, Kuroro moved on with the next question he had in mind.

_[Why didn't you tell me about him?]_

"Who him?" The corner of Lucian's mouth twitched involuntarily.

_[Don't play fool, Lucian.]_ Came the threat from over the phone.

Lucian gulped.

"W…well…" Lucian twiddled the dirt with the point of his shoe nervously.

Lucian had actually been away in another country for one of his hunts for medicinal herbs and other ingredients thereof, and currently he was standing in a forest that was the borderline of the country.

"Kurapika doesn't want me to tell you."

The pitch of his voice rose by one note at the end of the sentence, giving away his uncertainty of his own statement. Kuroro had not responded immediately, and there was a heavy silence that seemed to suffocate the already ashen pale vampire.

_[Derived or direct request?]_

Shoot.

There was an unbearably long silence from Lucian. Kuroro could wait as patiently as required, so long as he got his answer at the end. Finally, Lucian gave up.

"…derived…" he answered in his smallest, tiniest voice.

There was no audible response coming from the cell phone, but if Kuroro had been psychically there for Lucian to see, the vampire swore he would have seen the dry 'I knew it' look on Kuroro.

_[For how long have you known of him?]_ Finally Kuroro responded with yet another question.

"Um… About—"

Had Lucian been paying attention, he would have noticed a free-falling object coming down _right_ to his direction. Had he been sparing more of his attention, he would have heard the high-pitch scream that the object was giving off.

Or rather, the sky-diving person.

* * *

Kuroro did not know of what had happened over there; on the other side of the phone line, but he had the feeling that the picture would not be very pretty. Lucian had been talking—still in the middle of his sentence—when he was abruptly cut off as a loud, crashing sound could be heard. Kuroro heard the vampire's strange yelp of pain—it had sounded as if he had been run over by trucks that weighted tons. He did hear a kind of screeching voice that he suspected belonged to a female.

Soon enough, the line went dead. Kuroro looked at his cell phone briefly, vaguely wondering on what kind of calamity had befallen the vampire. He then shrugged off the matter, paying little care to Lucian's fate. The vampire would not die even if the sky fell on top of him.

"Why did you hang up? I want to talk to Papa Lucian!" Meta protested as he clung to one of Kuroro's arms.

Meta; being a four-years-old only, weighted almost nothing to Kuroro and so he was able to maintain his posture even with the boy dangling from his arm. It reminded him of the time when he had been forced to babysit a toddler—for several meagre minutes—by Kurapika.

"I didn't. The line was cut off." Kuroro explained as he gestured at Meta not to dangle from his arm.

Meta released his grip on Kuroro's arm and sat back on the make-shift bed; his huge eyes staring at Kuroro with curiosity and excitement. Ignoring that look, Kuroro pocketed his cell phone and made a mental note to interrogate the vampire once they crossed path in the future—which he suspected would come soon.

"How long have you known Lucian?" Kuroro absentmindedly asked Meta. After the question left his lips, he then belatedly realised that it was high chance that the boy would not remember.

"Since when?" The boy frowned, obviously trying to remember. In amusement, Kuroro decided to hear the kind of answer he would give.

_Since when?_ Meta repeated the question in his heart.

_**Two years ago,**_the voice in his mind offered.

"Two years!" The boy exclaimed while holding up two tiny fingers, making Kuroro raised an eyebrow.

"I see…" Kuroro muttered.

_Now this is interesting,_ he thought. A normal boy would not remember anything when he was two-years-old, much less remembering a first encounter with someone. Kuroro then had this gnawing suspicion in his heart that the boy was more than meet the eyes—literally. Something, or _someone_, was helping the boy from 'behind the scene'. The boy's frequent monologue was a proof of it. Imaginary friend? Perhaps.

However, he doubted a 'normal' imaginary friend could ever be that accurate and intelligent in helping Meta with answers.

Subconsciously, Kuroro covered his mouth with his hand—his trademark thinking gesture—as he thought of the probability of the answer behind the mystery of the blond little boy. As he did so, Meta kept observing him with the most curious expression on his Kurapika-look-alike face. Kuroro contemplated asking the boy directly, but judging from the way he looked guilty when he did his seemingly-monologue in front of him, Kuroro suspected that the boy had been told by this 'imaginary friend' not to tell anyone about 'his/her' presence.

_Perhaps Kurapika will know about this._ Then Kuroro added it to his to-ask list.

A thought suddenly crossed Kuroro's mind and he lowered his hand and looked down to Meta.

"And Meta?"

The little blond boy perked up in attention and sat up straight.

"Yes?"

"Never call him 'papa' again." Kuroro said flatly as he narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

Meta cocked his head sideways; his expression was that of a complete cluelessness and open bewilderment.

"Why?" He asked in the most genuinely innocent tone.

"Just don't."

"But Pa—Lucian insisted that I do."

Kuroro frowned slightly. He then decided that he would have to teach the boy how to learn discriminately. Some things were just too trashy to be committed to memory—and Lucian simply knew how to drill trashy information into one's mind. Most of all, he would not have _his_ boy taking up Lucian's irrevocably queer and embarrassing habits.

"…Don't _ever_ listen to him."

"Okay," responded Meta with a toothy grin.

* * *

"Paralda! What in Odin's name was that for? How could you drop this precious cargo from such altitude, you dimwit?"

For a humble human girl like her (yes, she was a human despite belonging to the Unicorn Tribe—the Unicorn people were humans, just as the Kuruta people were humans as well) to address the King of Sylph; one of the rulers of the four elements of the world, in such way was unheard of. However, she had the right to be pissed off because of the very fact that Yorn had been sent free-falling several metres from the sky.

_Hush, girl. That is not a way to address the King of Sylph._ The boyish king said with slight reprimand in his voice, though he soon apologised for the rude treatment. _The land is ruled by other Gods. Our magic has no effect here. From this onward, you can no longer rely on runes._

"Won't make a difference. I only know the easy-peasy runes, which won't help too much anyway." Yorn glowered.

_Rather than complaining, girl, why don't you have mercy on that man that you have so conveniently turned into your cushion?_

Very belatedly, Yorn looked down and only then noticed the lump of a man underneath her. He was twisted to a strange angle and for a moment Yorn was dead sure that the man was a goner; considering his body position. Hurriedly, Yorn got off from the man's body with a horrified look. The man let out a groan, and Yorn felt as if her heart—which had seemed to have dropped to her gut the moment she thought the man as dead—returned back to its righteous place and relief washed over her.

"You over there." A dead voice suddenly blew away her relief. She could literally taste the wariness and irritation in that voice. Well, she could not blame him for it, could she? After all, she had crashed into him from the sky.

Yorn only had the chance to look up and stare into the man's eyes when she was petrified by those glazy gray eyes. Thick suspicion coloured those seemingly dead eyes. His death pale skin did not help to ease her shock. She felt like she was about to be interrogated by an avenging ghost. When the man narrowed his eyes to dangerous slits, Yorn could not help but to sink back. The man then spoke flatly with an accent that was alien to Yorn:

"Why do you have the smell of _fată_'s blood on you?"

* * *

_**Author's Note**__: A bit of lesson on Celtic mythology here; I'm sure most of you know of Odin already (it's literally everywhere), and Morrigan is the Celtic Goddess of Death. Papa Lucian…Even when I was writing that down, I couldn't help but to laugh. Papa Lucian? What the heck? XD If I were in Kuroro's shoes, I'd be having my jaws on the floor. Oh, and about the picture of Kuroro lying on Kurapika's lap, remember the 'When Kuroro Is Out Cold' chapter in Just One of Those Days? ^^ _

_Assignments are starting to come with vengeance…_

_**Next:**__ The poison was taking its toll on Kurapika's body, and Yorn was seemingly still leagues away from reaching her. What would happen to Kurapika? With Yorn bumping (quite literally) into Lucian by accident, would that make a difference? _


	4. Chapter 3: Precarious

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own HunterxHunter _

_**Story so far: **__Yorn's poison started affecting Kurapika's body; paralyzing her slowly. At the same time, Yorn quite literally ran into Lucian, and the vampire noted the smell of Kurapika's blood on her. What would he do about it? Could he help Yorn to get to Kurapika before all was lost?_

_

* * *

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**Chapter 3**

_**PRECARIOUS**_

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* * *

**_

The young woman before him was by no means his average, standard normal human—not with that ivory horn jutting from her forehead. The rest of her body did look human enough: with the healthy suntanned skin and the lean built of her lithe body that indicated strength and stamina, with those blazing chrome diopside eyes, with those normal looking arms, hands, and legs, with her wild long auburn hair that spiked outrageously to all directions at the crown of her head but smoothened down as it dropped to her shoulders and back. So humane she was that she looked at him with a mixture of wariness and suspicion colouring her face.

Besides, her blood smelled normal enough.

Yorn, on the other hand, blinked at the pale man before her.

"Pardon?" She asked for verification. If her hearing had not failed her, the man had said: Why do you have the smell of _fată_'s blood on you? What in Odin's name was he talking about? Was he a raving mad man?

Instead of answering her, Lucian's face turned serious and he demanded straight away:

"Let me see your arrows."

Yorn's jaws went slack as she looked at the man with incredulity apparent on her face.

"_Excuse me?_ Who the hell are you?"

Lucian was growing impatient. He was usually a patient man—exceedingly so—but he highly suspected that this was no time to be patient. He smelled familiar blood, and that smell was mixed with something nastier than Ishtar's blood. That prospect alone was already a harbinger of ill wind for him.

"Ever heard of vampires? I'm one. So now I smell my friend's blood on, I suspect, one of your arrows. If you would let me inspect it?"

Information overloading. Yon stared at empty space for a while, trying to sort out the torrent of words that the pale man had just drilled into her head. She was quick with her instinct but slow with her brain; that much she knew since Lazmorgh had been very kind to point that out so many times before. After a while, one conclusion was registered.

"You know Kurapika Kuruta? Thank Odin! How lucky of me!"

Lucian frowned deeply at this and gave her the dubious look. The knowledge of a huntress carrying a weapon dipped in lethal poison with Kurapika's blood on it was not promising.

"Why are you searching for her?"

"She was poisoned by my arrow. Here!" Yorn brandished the guilty arrow to Lucian's face, and he wrinkled his nose visibly at the strong odour of the poison emitting from the arrow. "I'm supposed to give her treatment before the worst happens."

"The worst as in…?" He had a really, really bad feeling about this.

Yorn rolled her eyes.

"As dead as the dry winter leaves. What else?"

* * *

"I'm beat!" Leorio exclaimed as he plopped down to the bed of the hotel room that the rented.

The three of them; him, Gon, and Killua, had gone around the city looking for Meta but so far their efforts bore no fruits. There were no traces of that little blond boy at all, as if he was never there in the first place.

"Seriously, that boy will be the death of me!"

"Well, I find this ironic." Killua commented as he began rummaging through the mini fridge of the hotel in search of anything sweet and edible. "Just when Kurapika finally decides to leave Meta behind, he has to go missing. It never happens when Kurapika brought him along."

The corner of Leorio's mouth twitched involuntarily as he remembered a certain dreadful memory of being slapped almost to death by Kurapika when he had said the ultimately wrong thing while trying to persuade her to leave the boy behind. He could only fidget uneasily whenever he recalled that day. Gon; who seemed to have been deep in thought for quite some time, approached the glass wall that overlooked the view of the city from a nice bird view. Killua noticed him and sauntered to his side.

"What's wrong?" He casually asked while sipping a canned soft drink noisily.

"Uh, well…" Gon started, unsure on what to say first, "I've been thinking…if Meta has run into the Spiders or not."

Leorio turned rigid while Killua's eyes widened exponentially. They had not thought of that possibility at all. The room fell into a deafening silence, all of them too hesitant to make any sounds of confirmation.

"They aren't in the city," Leorio squeaked, "are they?"

"I don't know…" Gon shook his head slowly, his gaze still transfixed to the vast stretch of the metropolitan city down there. "But what if…Meta meets Kuroro Lucifer?"

Another pin-drop silence occupied the room. Gon finally tore his gaze from the glass wall and stared at Killua with concerned look on his face.

"What do you think, Killua?"

The said teenager put down his half-finished canned drink and crossed his arms, thinking deeply of that matter. Indeed, they often pondered about how Kuroro Lucifer would react upon knowing that he had a son. They understood Kurapika's huge reluctance to let the birth of Meta known to anyone except her closest friends—which included: Gon, Killua, Leorio, Fino and her family, Lucian, and Senritsu. Shalnark was a special case, because he had rudely snooped around, but Fino had done a wonderful job making him promise not to tell to a soul out there. Kurapika had many reasons to be paranoid. One simplest reason was her fear of the boy being discovered as a Kuruta and thus throwing him into untold dangers. Killua had guessed of several other reasons, but one strongest reason that he suspected Kurapika had in mind was the unknown reaction that Kuroro Lucifer would give.

Kuroro Lucifer was dangerously unpredictable—very much so. He was even more unpredictable than Hisoka. That deranged clown with a few loose screws in his head was more or less predictable, now that they had spent some 'quality' time dealing with him whenever Hisoka felt like checking up on his 'apples' or 'bananas' or whatever fruits else. They had learned his pattern of thinking. But Kuroro Lucifer? He was too hard to read.

_If I were him, what would I do when I found out I had a son?_ Killua pondered. _This is Kuroro Lucifer we are talking about. The Head of the Genei Ryo—_

Then something clicked in Killua's head.

Ah… He got it; or so he thought. Kuroro would definitely take the boy to raise him—or train, in his case—to be a Spider. Yes, Kuroro Lucifer was an opportunist. He remembered that the last time the Genei Ryodan still lacked two more members. He wondered if they had found any replacements or not over the past five years.

His reverie and train of thoughts were broken when Gon's cell phone rang loudly. The owner hurriedly answered the phone. When he heard the speaker's voice, Gon's face lit up.

"President Netero!"

The other three Hunters straightened up in alert. The president never called the Hunters for breezy chit-chat. There had to be something important going on, though more often than not the senile old man's attitude betrayed all kind of importance behind his speech or intention.

_[Hello, Gon. Good to hear you alive and kicking.]_ The old man said, and he laughed in his own characteristic way. _[Are Killua and Leorio with you?]_

"Yeah! We are waiting for Kurapika."

_[Perfect. Listen up, Gon. Do Kurapika a huge favour by coming to the Yorkshin Central Hospital right now. Can you do it?]_

Sensing the seriousness in the oddball of a President's voice—which was extremely rare—the three could not help but to snap into sharper attention. After briefly glancing at the clock, Killua snatched Gon's cell phone from its owner's grip and took over the conversation.

"She isn't supposed to reach Yorkshin now." Killua stated while indirectly demanding an explanation to it. And what was with the hospital?

_[I'll fill you in with the details later.]_ Netero said rather hastily.

"What's wrong with her?" Killua asked, but inwardly he was afraid of hearing the answer.

There was a short pause before Netero responded:

_[She's dying.]_

_

* * *

_

He felt it. It was a feeling that he had almost forgotten after five years of being out of touch with it—the constricting feeling of his Nen that resided within _her_. Kuroro looked up from whatever he was doing, but curiously at the same time Meta did the same. The look on his face was that of a profound terror.

"Something happened to Mom," said Meta in a whispery voice, the tone filled with horror.

Kuroro had no idea on how the boy could know it. It was as if he had a telepathic or empathic ability of the likes. Or was it simply the strong bond shared between mother and son?

"I know." Kuroro simply responded.

As if providing evidence for his sudden restlessness, Kuroro's cell phone rang. Flashing one quick look at the Caller ID, Kuroro answered the call without hesitation.

"Lucian."

_So he's still alive,_ Kuroro vaguely wondered as he recalled the bone-crashing sound he heard from his latest call to the vampire.

_[Lucifer. Something urgent comes up.]_

"It's about Kurapika." It was more of a question than statement. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Meta looking at him with wide eyes full of anticipation.

_[Yes, yes, it is.] _Lucian said over the phone impatiently_. [No time to explain now. Just come over here quick.]_

"What happened?"

A long pause.

_[Severe case of poisoning.]_

Kuroro frowned at this. Poisoning was least likely to bring down that tough girl. He had expected something else more dramatic, but poisons? Ishtar's blood within her should have done a wonderful job purging the harmful substance out of her system, except if it was a special kind of poison. Did she encounter another mythical creature?

_[Are you meeting me or not?]_ Lucian called to him with slight irritation at Kuroro's seemingly dilly-dallying.

"Where?"

_[The forest near the Yorkshin Central Hospital.]_

_The forest?_ Kuroro raised a quizzical eyebrow.

_[You better come quickly, _m-ai auzit_ (you hear me)?]_

Then the vampire rudely hung up. Paying no heed to Lucian's unseemly rudeness and out-of-place impatience, Kuroro pondered about the sudden circumstances that had suddenly wrapped themselves around him. New things were suddenly being introduced to him at such unforgiving torrent that he found himself getting swept away by the tide. He felt like he was losing control of things around him. He did not like that prospect.

Somehow, he had to settle things quickly and had a firm grip on what was going on.

A pair of small hands clutched at his arm again, and Kuroro looked down to see Meta staring at him with something akin to determination in his sapphire blue eyes. He felt a bad premonition coming, especially after he heard Meta's words:

"I'm coming with you!"

* * *

Kurapika woke up only to find herself floating in a thick darkness, as if she was floating in some dense, thick invisible liquid. Her whole body felt lethargic and powerless, as if her muscles had failed her severely. The most he could do was to cast weary glance to her surroundings. Her minds were muddled, she could not think clearly—she could not even think of _anything_ at all. It was as if her mind was a completely empty container.

She did not like it; the feeling of having no knowledge. She hated it; it made her feel insecure and weak. So Kurapika tried hard to revive some memories, but they were as distant as the long forgotten fossils of the old world. Still Kurapika persevered, until she finally recalled the latest memory before she succumbed into oblivion.

She remembered being in panic as her whole body was seized by total paralysis. At first it had been her muscles, but then she could feel her lungs and hearts lagging behind in their normal activities. She could feel her blood pressure dropping and found herself gasping for more air. Not a pleasant memory, but that was only the physical part. There was still the psyche part of that memory.

The last thought she had before she fell into that coma had been concerning Meta. How was he doing, all alone in a strange place? Was he alright? Had his friends found him? There were so many things she had not taught him, so many things she had not told him of his origins—of his biological father. Then, before darkness finally consumed her, Kuroro Lucifer had been the last one thought she hung on to.

She could think no more. With each passing minutes, her mind grew numb and she felt like closing her eyes—her eyelids felt so heavy. However, she had the nagging feelings that if she closed her eyes, chances were she would never open them again.

_Kurapika?_ A familiar voice ripped through the deafening silence of the darkness.

Opening her eyes wider, Kurapika looked around and saw a glowing figure floating in the further darkness (how she could tell that the figure was simply far away and not factually small in size was beyond her, but she simply knew). Her eyes widened even more as she realised that she was actually staring at the ghostly apparition of Ishtar of Ryuusei-gai.

She was still clad in her all-black glory, her icy beauty perpetual and flawless. The curly mass of her raven hair danced in the void air of the darkness, giving an eerie air around her while her pale skin seemed to glow, accentuating the inhumane nature of her being.

_You are not supposed to be here, _the ghost of Ishtar said with clearly unhappy face.

"What is this place?" Kurapika asked groggily with barely audible voice. She felt like she was talking underwater; her throat clogged with liquid substance yet she was free to breathe.

_Kurapika, I am dead,_ Ishtar said with a warning tone.

Kurapika frowned. She wanted to ask "So?" but it would sound ridiculously dumb. So she tried to think of the implication of Isthar's words. Then it dawned to her.

"I'm not dead, am I?" She asked in horror-filled whisper.

_Not quite,_ answered Ishtar. _But you are in the border between life and death._

Kurapika did not know whether she ought to be pleased or not. She tried to move; to get into a more comfortable position to talk with Isthar, but not a single muscle would obey her. As she frowned at this, Ishtar noticed her uneasiness.

_Can you move?_ She asked, while her abysmal dark eyes were fixed on her hard.

"No…" She breathed out, still trying to move at least her arm. Nothing happened.

_Good,_ said Ishtar in an obviously relieved tone. Kurapika gave her a perplexed look. _If you cannot move, it means you still cling on to life. You are not about to join me here any time soon yet._

Now Kurapika knew that she had to be relieved to hear that.

_What is your reason for clinging stubbornly to life, Kurapika?_ Isthar asked, her visage somewhat gentle yet somehow intimidating. Kurapika felt like she was being interrogated. Then again, it was always like that with Ishtar. She gave people the sense of being peeled layer by layers to reveal their inner self.

"Meta…" She managed to whisper.

Isthar's face softened up considerably.

_He is such a sweet boy._

Kurapika looked at her with questioning gaze.

"Does being dead automatically allow you to know what's happening in the world, or are you particularly paying attention to him?"

The glowing image of the former Lady of Ryuusei-gai gave a lopsided smirk to her.

_Well, to say the truth, I'm particularly enjoying tutoring your little boy,_ she said deliberately slow voice. _Especially since he is very receptive to the bodiless entities such as me._

_

* * *

_

"I WANT TO COME TOO!"

Upon hearing that outrageously loud yell, most of the Spiders jumped out of their skins. By golly, the boy sure did have a pair of powerful lungs. His screams were so ears-piercing they could pick up the words without any difficulties at all, but the only things the boy was screaming his head off was "I wanna come too!", and nothing else to explain the reason for his tantrum.

The Spiders then started betting on what kind of issue Meta was upset about. Machi had just rolled her eyes and refused to join the silly betting.

"What do you think he's mad about?" Shalnark asked Machi while watching his fellow Spiders betting.

Machi gave him a dirty look.

"It doesn't take a genius to deduce that Danchou is leaving soon and he's not bringing the kid along." She answered pointedly.

Shalnark remained unfazed by her attitude, and instead he pouted like a child who had been told that he could not have his cookies for snacks.

"Yeah, I know that much… But why is Danchou leaving?"

"Who knows?" Machi only shrugged, as if disinterested while actually she was itching to know as well. But most of all, she was curious to death to know _how_ their Danchou would handle the…delicate situation.

After all, Kuroro Lucifer had never dealt with little children for all they knew.

Soon enough, the screaming died down and was replaced by some husky, tearful whispers. Some of the Spiders went "Oooh…" as they noticed the significant change in the boy's attitude. Did their Danchou do something to successfully calm down the little blond 'demon'?

When the door was opened, Kuroro sauntered out of the room looking all perfect and sober—although actually inside he was thoroughly distraught—while trailing behind him was the little replica of Kurapika whose eyes were all puffy and bloodshot from the quick-shot crying session. As Kuroro assumed his usual place in the dingy spacious storage room, Meta surprisingly did not perch himself next to his father as the Spiders had anticipated. With one glance from Kuroro, the boy pouted and made his way towards Machi; of all people, while keeping his gaze fixed to floor.

Some of the Spiders rudely made an open gasp of surprise. Machi herself was stunned. She gave Kuroro the "What's going on?" glance but before Kuroro could explain, Phinx and Nobunaga had come to him; barrelling him with questions:

"Danchou, what happened?"

"Why did the kid blow his fuse?"

"How exactly did you cool down that hollering little fiend just now?"

Kuroro had the urge to massage the bridge of his nose but refrained from doing so since that gesture was not to his taste. It could be considered a miracle that _he_ managed to make the boy quiet down in such record time—not that he ever dealt with children before, though. With that volume he had mustered, Meta could have wakened the dead from their graves; if not a whole cemetery.

"First of all," Kuroro started as he straightened up and went all business. The Spiders perked into attention. "The purpose is this meeting for me to brief you about our next mission."

"Finally!" Phinx whistled.

"What's the mission, Danchou?" Nobunaga asked, but he was observing the suddenly-frighteningly-quiet boy from the corner of his eyes.

Kuroro gave a wry smile.

"Survival."

A thick, pregnant silence filled the entire compound. A few long seconds passed before finally one of the broke the pin-drop silence:

"Come again?" Shalnark asked, blinking dumbly.

"You are all to survive until I have settled something," Kuroro said, but it did little to explain everything.

"Settled something? It's not about…" Nobunaga cast a hard glance at the little blond boy; who was so distracted he missed Nobu's gaze, but Feitan snickered at him.

"Stupid Nobu. Why do we have to survive if Danchou wants to settle things with his woman?"

Kuroro, surprisingly, gave Feitan a very mild glare—and nobody missed it. Kuroro Lucifer very rarely ever glared at his Spiders. The only times when they got to see myriads of expressions from him were when a certain Kuruta was around to fish those expressions out of him.

His glare did not last long, though. Soon enough he was already assuming the stoic mask of indifference, and he began relating to them the event that occurred a few days back; one that made him gather his Spiders.

xXx

The layers of dust that covered the chamber was outrageous, even to Kuroro's—a Ryuusei-gai citizen—standard. The dust was practically the carpet of the floor, the curtain of the windows, the tablecloth of the desks, and the covering of the books. He held one hand up to cover his mouth and nose while the other hand was utilised to brush the dusts off the title of the ancient books sitting heavily along the shelves. He treaded the perilously dusty floor carefully, unwilling to disturb too much of the dust that might sent him coughing to death.

The library was abandoned and was as old as the wind itself. Despite so, the content of the library was marvellous and priceless. Kuroro was highly pleased to find the library intact and untouched by the filthy hands of those greedy humans out there; who tore down precious historical and sacred buildings in the façade of modernisation. Many of the books there were the last copies of books that had supposedly perished from the face of the Earth because of their supposedly-blasphemous and evil content.

Before long, stacks of those heavy bound textbooks were laid open on the huge desk. Kuroro had one particular book on his lap—a book with the reversed pentagram symbol and with writings of long forgotten language. The first time he laid his eyes on that book, he could not understand the words for the life of his, but as he flipped open the book, he suddenly realised that a stream of knowledge was diffusing into his head, teaching him the ancient language of the olden world. Exited and wary at the same time, Kuroro buried his nose in reading the whole book.

He was not surprised to notice that the book was the very book of Lemegeton—the written manual of some sort of the Solomon Ring.

He knew that it was the Solomon Ring that had taught him the language in that very instant—as if the Ring and the Book were connected via Kuroro. It was a terrifying concept, especially for the perspective of an owner of the ring which was leagues away on the other side of the globe from his person but still managed to get in touch with him through that book. But Kuroro was not terrified. If anything, he simply chuckled with amusement.

Hours passed by and Kuroro was studying the descriptions and natures of the 72 demons of the Ring. When a call disturbed him from his intense study, he had only reached the 54th demon—Orobas; the Great Prince of Hell. When Kuroro looked at the Caller ID, he raised one curious eyebrow but nevertheless he silently answered the phone.

_[Hey.]_

He knew that voice; the flat, monotonously melodious deep voice that belonged to a certain man with impenetrable stoic mask which was even more expressionless than his. Kuroro narrowed his eyes ever so slightly; to have the eldest son—who by no means was the most amiable person on Earth—of the most powerful assassin family known in the history was definitely not a good prospect.

"I'm surprised to find you calling me. What is the occasion?" Kuroro evenly responded to Illumi in the most casual yet professional manner. After all, their latest relation had been that of pure business.

_[My father has accepted a job to eliminate the Genei Ryodan.]_

Somehow, Kuroro was not too surprised to hear it. He had expected it. The Genei Ryodan had thousands of enemies out there in global range, of course there would be people—mostly likely their victims—who would want nothing less than the total annihilation of the accursed Spiders organization. Still, to face Silva Zaoldyck again...This time would be the third time. And what was with the son informing the target of the hunt?

Then again…

Kuroro looked down at the book on his lap. He glanced at the description of Orobas: _he confers the favour of friends and foe_.

"Why are you telling me this?" Kuroro asked lightly yet slightly suspicious. He knew that Illumi had his trade in playing words.

_[…I'm just doing you a little favour.]_

Kuroro laughed inwardly at that Illumi's words as he glanced again fleetingly the description of the demon Orobas. It was no coincidence, it seemed—The Solomon Ring was definitely a thing to behold. Such terrifying power, indeed. However the case was, he knew that Illumi was not telling the whole truth.

"It's for your little brother's sake, is it not?"

Illumi did not answer and instead he said: _[The client is Countess __Báthory__. That's all.]_ And then he hung up.

Kuroro chuckled to himself amusedly at Illumi's awkward expression of love for his brother. He then began telling his Spiders to assemble at Yorkshin City. When he was done with it, he pocketed his phone and glanced around the deserted library. He wondered if he ought to return the books to their places or not. Nobody was using it anyway—in fact, he doubted anyone out there was even aware of the library. He had a suspicion that even the Hunter Association might not know about the place, otherwise the place would have been polished up and guarded.

In this aspect, he felt satisfied with himself. It was another haven that he had found for himself.

Not bothering to tidy up the books, Kuroro turned to walk out of the library. At the doorstep he stopped and cast one tentative glance at the lonely library.

_Kurapika will be very pleased to know of this place,_ was what he thought.

But he only chuckled at that very thought and strode away without giving it another consideration.

xXx

Kuroro of course had not told his Spiders the details of that event by all means; only the crucial part regarding Illumi giving away his father's professionally ill-intention towards him.

"Why can't we just confront this Zaoldyck assassin and be done with him once and for all?" Nobunaga asked, his hand already gripping the hilt of his katana, itching to get into actions.

Kuroro gave a crooked thin smile; one that sent shivers down one's neck.

"We have some scores to settle between us. Besides…" Kuroro cast one quick glance at Kalluto, but the youth was too busy staring at the little blond standing very near to Machi, "he will come after me first."

In all honesty, Kuroro knew that Silva would be after him first because that man would want to avoid killing his son by all means. He might hope that by killing the Head, the group would somehow sooner or later disband, especially when he had killed most of them. He would definitely target Kalluto last, and when the group disbanded before he reached Kalluto as the last target, he could simply bring the boy back home.

Kuroro smiled rather sinisterly at this deduction. He really felt like jeopardising the elder Zaoldyck's plan and struck some nerves of that old man. The ensuing fight afterwards would definitely be more than exciting.

"I thought he will come after the weakest of us first?" Shalnark piped in. "I heard Silva Zaoldyck is all business no fun."

"Indeed he is." Kuroro gave a small chuckle, but did not elaborate his point further except for, "nevertheless, I already have _someone_ in mid to deal with that countess."

That said by Kuroro, the Spiders had nothing else to say against it. From the way their danchou emphasised on the 'someone' part, the Spiders knew that whoever that 'someone' was, Kuroro Lucifer was confident that that person would settle the matter smoothly without any hassles.

"So…" Machi began, "what about him, Danchou?"

What Machi had really intended to ask was: What did you tell this kid to calm him down and at the same time make him come to me?

"You are to keep him here and don't let him out of your views." He glanced at Meta, who glared at him with grand unhappiness—even the way he glared was similar to his mother. "Make sure he stays put."

The Spiders exchanged curious glances at each other, but did not dare to refute their Head's decision and order. They all understood that Kuroro simply wanted to get the kid out of his way as he dealt with his issues, while at the same time getting the kid himself out of danger's way. They did not have to be Einstein to come to one conclusion:

The boy was a magnet for troubles.

* * *

Meta rolled aimlessly on the even ground. He rolled to the left, then he rolled to the right. He looked at his three 'bodyguards' present in the room: the eyebrow-less man, Fino's boyfriend, and a strange one-eyed green-haired little man.

It was no fun to have only three of them in the room. When everyone was present in one room, everything seemed to be livelier; especially when the huge-nosed samurai, the eyebrow-less man, and the short pointy-eyed man were together in one package. They would shout at each other with some nasty-sounding words that Meta had yet to find out about, but they seemed to be having fun of some sort.

When Meta had decided to join the fun, like a child who was high on sugar and chocolate, he had apparently made a mess out of them all.

He had climbed Franklin's back until he could stand on his broad shoulders ("Kid, get down. I'm not your personal stage.") He had tried dismantling the mummy-man but he could not even find the end of that white clothe covering him. He had tried pinching Nobunaga's nose hard because it looked so swollen he wondered whether the samurai had some infection on the nose or not. He had tried inspecting Phinx's forehead in search of any traces of eyebrows since he thought the man had burned his entire eyebrows. He had tried tugging down Feitan's robe to see what was behind that tall scarf that concealed half of his face.

He had also tugged Kalluto's hair hard to see if it was a wig or not. Shalnark did not interest him since he had had his fun with him when they met in Fino's inn last year ("Phew…" Shalnark exhaled in relief yet shuddered in remembering the experience.) He had stolen Shizuku's eyeglasses to try it out himself, but he ended up all dizzy—which made him fall from the high crates where he had escaped to from Shizuku's grasp.

Which caused Machi to use her Nen strings on him to catch him in his fall before he broke his neck against the concrete floor. Meta ended up hanging by one of his ankle, suspended in the air by Machi's lone Nen string but he had found it exhilarating and he began giggling excitedly.

Before long, the Spiders unanimously decided that they would take shifts in looking after the kid, otherwise the little blond fiend would kill them before Silva Zaoldyck even reached their Headquarter.

So Meta was bored. Dead bored.

"I want to go…" He muttered to nobody in particular, and his three 'bodyguards' ignored him—they were too tired from the last exertion in their attempt to calm the hyper boy.

_**You can**_, whispered the voice in Meta's head. _**I will teach you the trick, but make sure you do everything EXACTLY as I tell you, down to the last letter. Understood?**_

_Understood!_ Meta squealed delightfully in his heart. _So what do I do?_

_**First, approach that…green-haired creature sitting at the corner of the room.**_

_That one?_ Meta asked as he approached the particular green-haired creature who was none other than Coltopi.

_**Yes. Now ask him nicely what his Nen power is, **_the voice instructed him.

"Um…" Meta started, and he earned only a stare from the one eye visible under the mop of green hair of the small man.

"Yes?" Coltopi asked with his husky voice.

"What is your Nen power?" Meta asked with the most innocent face and voice he could muster.

Coltpi looked at him evenly. Taking for granted that the boy might have heard from his mother about Nen, Coltopi answered him.

"I can make copies."

"Exact ones?"

"Perfectly exact."

"Wow…" Meta remarked with genuine admiration as his small voice formed a tiny 'O'.

_**Ask him to make you a copy of yourself to demonstrate, **_the voice told him.

"Can you show me?"

"Sure. What do you want me to copy?" Coltopi responded, unaware that he was playing right into the 'trap'.

"Copy me!" Meta said with an excited squeal—one that Phinx and Nobunaga had grown to dread just recently—and he skipped to Coltopi.

The small man copied him without breaking a sweat, and Meta was absolutely captivated by the exactness of his copy. The other Spiders paid no heed to the loud voices the boy was making, though they made it a point to make sure that at least two Spiders had to be near the boy in case Silva Zaoldyck decided to butcher them first before going after their Danchou.

"What do you think Danchou will do if something happens to the kid?"

"I wouldn't entertain even the thought of life-threatening dangers like that, if I were you, Phinks." Shalnark gave a nervous smile. "I'd rather not think of the consequences."

Phinks pondered over it for a while, cast one quick measuring glance at the blond boy, and finally nodded solemnly.

"Not a good picture."

"Definitely not." Shalnark agreed whole-heartedly.

One hour passed and the boy quieted down into a nap—which made the three Spiders tremendously relieved. They pitied the next shift group since when the kid woke up, he would be horrifyingly hyper-and-high-on-sugar again. The door to the room that held the boy 'hostage' opened and Nobunaga sauntered in with Machi behind him. It was 'shift' time. Without so much of an exchange of words, the three Spiders stood up but by the time they had just straightened their knees, Machi yelled at them.

"Where is the boy?"

That shocked the living hell out of Phinx and Shalnark. Coltopi, in his very characteristically 'Coltopi' manner, could only blink in confusion. They turned around to the spot where the boy was, and they found him there, sleeping on one of the crates where he had been for the past few hours.

"Are you blind? He's just sleeping like a log over there." Phinx said rather irritably. His eardrums throbbed from Machi's yell.

"Are _YOU_ blind? That is not him!" Machi stormed into the room and grabbed the boy by the lapel of his new shirt.

Ah, yes. The Spiders had dutifully supplied the little boy with fresh set of (stolen) outfit since the one he had been wearing was thoroughly ruined by all the cuts and blood all over it. Kuroro had specifically told the girls to 'clean him up', since he did not trust the standard hygiene of the males of the group. So Machi had brought back a dark blue t-shirt and long pants for the boy.

When Machi lifted the boy up by the front of his t-shirt quite roughly, the boy did not stir from his slumber. His head lolled to the side as Machi shook him, as if he had been dead instead of asleep.

"He's not dead, is he?" Phinx questioned in utter horror.

"That is his copy that I made." Coltopi answered, his voice devoid of any emotions.

"Seriously?" Shalnark turned to him, profound terror clear on his youthful face.

"Positive." Coltopi responded mechanically.

"What were you lousy weasels doing all the time? Playing dead?" Nobunaga exclaimed disbelievingly.

"We gotta tell the others and search for him _before_ Danchou finds out." Phinx said with strained voice, as if he was choking on a huge pebble.

With that, he stormed out of the room to inform his fellow Spiders, followed by Shalnark and Nobunaga, and finally Coltopi sauntered towards the door but was intercepted by Machi.

"Did he ask for the copy?"

"He did. He was asking about my Nen power." Coltopi turned to look at the copy he made himself. "But what I don't understand it why the copy is giving off the boy's Nen and lacks my Nen."

"It does?" Machi looked at the copy dubiously.

Coltopi merely nodded. Machi frowned at this. Did they boy perchance inject some of his Nen into the copy? But it was impossible for someone his age who was none the wiser about Nen. This was too difficult a problem for her to solve alone; she would need her Danchou's brain. Yes, she would consult him about it. For the time being, she would do what she could.

"When did you make the copy?"

"Approximately one hour and 12 minutes ago."

"When did he start falling asleep?"

"About 53 minutes ago."

Machi did her calculations in her head as Coltopi left her alone in the room. She looked around the room and found no other way out except for the one door. She frowned at this. Had the boy escaped during the brief shift time? It was less than a few minutes only. Had the boy gotten out while using the Shadow Steps technique? But he had not completely mastered it yet, so they ought to have sensed even his fleeting thin presence when he passed them. Nevertheless, it that was really the case, Meta ought to be still in the vicinity; nearby enough for any of the Spiders to catch up with him soon enough. But…

"I know you are still in the room." Or so her intuition was telling her.

There was long stretched silence. Willing her hearing to be keener, Machi listened closely. She could hear the low whistle of the wind blowing through the cracks of the old dilapidated building, she blocked the sound of her own breathing and heartbeats, but nothing. Just when she started to doubt her intuition, a very soft rustling sound reached her ears and she turned her head towards the source of that noise.

Meta stood behind one of the largest crate in the room near where his copy was—he had actually not moved that far from the previous spot—his bright golden crown of hair betraying his presence in the shadows of the crates to her. He had a look of huge guiltiness, and he was squirming uneasily; his small fists curling around his new shirt and taking a fistful of the fabrics, squeezing them restlessly.

Machi said and did nothing as Meta revealed his presence. She stared at him intensely, waiting to see what kind of tricks the little boy had up his sleeves. He could not be showing himself from his hiding place just because she _told_ him to come out, could he?

"I want to go…" The boy finally said shyly after a moment of suffocating silence.

"Where?" Machi asked flatly.

"With Dad…to Mom…" Meta whispered, as if embarrassed to even say it out loud but there was a hint of longing in those words that even Machi could not ignore.

Machi gave him a measuring look as she turned around to fully face him. Was the boy saying that Danchou was going to Kurapika? But did he not state that he was going to deal with Silva Zaoldyck first? Then again, remembering the tantrum that Meta had just thrown back then that afternoon, everything seemed to fall into pieces.

"No. Danchou said that you are to stay here, and that's that." Machi said sternly.

"Danchou?" Meta blinked, his memory not registering that name.

"Your…father." Machi rolled her tongue uneasily; the word had tasted strange in her mouth. She had been living without a father all her life, she had never uttered the word 'father' since she could remember. "We call him Danchou."

"Oh…" Meta ducked his head and there was a look of consternation and deep thought on that childish face.

Machi waited. She could sense that the boy was going to retaliate, and so she was going to see what kind of argument he would come up with. It was kind of unfair, since he was only four-years-old and was as naïve as any children could be.

"But you can come along with me. That way, you can keep looking after me, right?" Meta said with his eyes twinkling, as if he felt that he was being brilliant.

Machi shook her head slowly.

"Danchou specifically told us to keep you _here_, and you are to _stay put_."

The little blond boy gave a heartbroken expression as his face fell, and a cloud of gloom hung around his head almost immediately. A muscle at Machi's cheek twitched involuntarily as she was rewarded with that expression. She was never given that kind of look—a look of profound disappointment—before.

Then, Meta's face looked as if he was going to cry any time soon.

_Oh, no…_Machi stiffened up. If the boy was going to cry or throw a tantrum, she had no idea on how to deal with that. She should have asked Kuroro about how to deal with the boy before he left. Crap.

Machi's worry never came true, though.

_**Don't be such a cry-baby, Meta. You are not weak, are you? Your father will be disappointed to see you crying over such small matters,**_the soft voice in Meta's head told him soothingly.

_B—but…_Meta sobbed once.

_**Come on, Meta. You can convince her, can't you?**_

Upon hearing this, Meta looked up and saw that the blue-haired woman with small built was still standing imposingly before him, her face as cold and hard as any stones. Mustering all strength he had at disposal to rein his tears from overflowing, Meta approached Machi with extended hands.

The female Spider wanted to inch away from Meta's hands, but she felt that she was not supposed to do that. So, she waited and did nothing as Meta touched her hand with his both small hands.

"Pretty please?" His voice came like a frightened squeak of a little mouse.

Then, Machi felt it. She could feel warm tendrils of something sipping right into her from Meta's touch. Machi knew that it was the boy's emotions and feelings that were invading her senses, and those emotions were overriding her own emotions. It was as if she was being brainwashed. For a moment she felt like she was being carried by a tidal wave, her mind disoriented as if it was being reprogrammed.

It all happened in a flash. When she came back to her self and awareness, she found herself still in that dingy room which was the Headquarter of the Genei Ryodan. She looked down and saw the boy still looking up at her with those hopeful eyes.

"Please?" He whispered to her, very earnest about his wish.

This time, Machi found herself unable to deny the boy's simple wish.

* * *

Kuroro stood in the centre of a park in Yorkshin City. He could see the sky-scraping building of the Yorkshin Central Hospital from there; its structure small as distance reduced its size, and seemingly lonely against the dim bleak background of the evening sky. He could reach that place in less than five minutes despite the long distance, but he chose not to.

He had his phone in his hand, the receiver hovering near his ears.

"Lucian." He said curtly the moment his call was answered.

_[Where are you? I've been waiting forever!] _The vampire answered impatiently.

"Don't blame me for this. This is your dear aunt's fault." Kuroro stated, accompanied with a mirthless chuckle.

_[Come again?]_

"Tell your aunt that although I appreciate her kindness for supplying me with entertainment, I do _not _particularly like this certain game she has set up for me," said Kuroro as he glanced at a certain spot among the trees that surrounded the park.

_[Again?]_ Came Lucian's exasperated voice through the receiver.

"Again." Kuroro agreed.

_[Sheesh… That old hag really has nothing better to do, is it?]_

"Much like her nephew is. I suppose that trait runs in the family."

_[Excuse me?]_ Lucian cried in indignation, but nevertheless he did not pursue the matter further. _[What am I to do now?]_ His question had actually been: Am I to tell the assassin's client to annul the contract first, or am I to go to Kurapika first?

"See to Kurapika first. I will deal with him as _appropriately._"

_[Why don't you just freaking kill him, _frate_ (brother)?]_ Lucian asked rather irritably.

"Only when push comes to shove."

_[Why is that?]_

"It's such a waste to just kill him right away."

There a silence, before the vampire responded reproachfully: _[__Esti nebun__. _(You're crazy)_]_

Kuroro only chuckled darkly. Without a parting word, he simply hung up and pocketed his phone. He turned around and saw that a certain silver-haired man was already standing there.

"How polite of you to wait until I have finished my phone call." Kuroro said casually as he straightened up and invisibly flexed his muscles for preparation of the coming strenuous exercise.

"That may be your last phone call ever." Silva replied with flat, uncaring voice.

"Oh, I am pretty confident that it won't be the case." Kuroro gave a thin smile.

"We'll see." The much older man said a millisecond before he charged at Kuroro like a mad bull.

* * *

"So you really are the one Meta has been talking to." Kurapika said accusingly.

_Indeed I am,_ Ishtar nodded in confirmation. _Are you unhappy about that?_

Kurapika did not respond straight away. She mulled over it a while. Was she unhappy about it? She had had her worry and suspicions before. Ridiculous as it might sound, she had had the occasions when she thought Meta might be autistic or the sort. Now that she knew that it was Ishtar meddling with her son, was she supposed to be worried or relieved? Meta was obviously more intelligent and sharp-minded than his peers, not to mention his unnerving range of knowledge that a four-years-old boy did not commonly know. In some aspects, he had also grown more mature than his friends.

Then she remembered that Kuroro was the way he was because of Isthar's upbringing and influence.

"I—"

The word had scarcely left her mouth when suddenly dry wind blew in the darkness, disturbing the quietness in it. Ishtar looked surprised only at the slightest, but Kurapika was thoroughly taken aback by the sudden shift of atmosphere; even more when she felt the wind dragging her. She looked over her shoulder and could see the black hole that was trying to such her in. Frantically, Kurapika glanced at Ishtar but the woman was only smiling mystifyingly at her.

_Time to go back, Kurapika. There are people who still need you,_ she said; her soft voice still surprisingly audible despite the noises generated by the wind grating against the void of the darkness.

"Ishtar!" Kurapika called out to her. There were still so many things she wanted to ask her, and she did not know when else she could get in contact with her. After all, Ishtar was dead; she did not even know that she would ever meet her in such fashion.

_Meta can connect us,_ Ishtar said, as if she had read Kurapika's mind. She lifted one of her hands and gave her a tiny wave of goodbye. _Send my regards to Kuroro, Kurapika._

Before Kurapika could respond, she was wholly swallowed by the black hole and was pulled back into reality.

* * *

To be more precise, she had been _thrown_ back in a grand slam into reality rather roughly.

With a loud deep gasp, as if she had just been saved from suffocating to death, Kurapika snapped open her eyes. Light blinded her sight and she cringed away from the harsh white light. She felt like she had been slammed into the concrete instead of feeling like waking up from a short nap as she had somewhat expected. Her body ached all over, most probably from being paralysed for such a prolonged time.

She could smell the strong familiar scent of grass and soils. She could hear the faint rustling of the leaves. Where was she? She remembered being in a blimp the last time before she passed out.

"Kurapika!" A familiar deep voice called out to her in obvious relief.

Focusing her sight, she realised belatedly then that she was surrounded by quite a number of people. There were her loyal friends; Leorio, Killua, and Gon. There was also Lucian, that incorrigible vampire. There was Yorn—Kurapika widened her eyes. Why was she here?

"She's alive! Oh, thanks Odin!" Yorn threw her arms heavenward in a celebrative manner, completely relieved to know that she would not be disowned by her father for killing the last pure-blooded Kuruta by accident.

The trio Hunters tried to talk to her simultaneously, but their voices became an orchestra of cacophony so she decided to ignore them for the time being until they cooled down. Besides, listening to their chattering and yapping when she was still recovering from near-death-experience only served to give her a grand headache. So, she turned to Lucian—who seemed to be calm enough to respond to her normally.

"Where?"

"Yorkshin, _dragă_ (dear). It's a long story." Lucian said with voice as calm as possible, but he was hinting that there were something else that mattered more at the moment.

"…Meta?" She asked in a ghostly voice, the scarce colour in her face drained further, leaving her as white as a sheet of paper.

Lucian lowered his face near hers, and whispered: "_Cu tatăl său _(with his father)"

Kurapika's eyes instantly turned scarlet.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ Okay, so many readers complained that Meta's full name (Metatron), which sounded more like Megatron from Transformer, is not good. First of all, let me make things clear: I WAS NOT EVEN thinking of Transformer when I picked that name. That's solely because Metatron is the name of the highest angel in the angelic hierarchy. Don't spoil my love for that name just because of that (__stupid__) robot movie._

_And a note for __**kittycatdanger01**__, I don't know where you heard it from, but Michael IS NOT Jesus. They are two completely different entities, and on different level as well. Jesus is part of the Trinity, equal to God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit since Jesus is God the Son. But Michael is just an angel, another creation of God. And Lucifer is a fallen angel, Metatron is the highest angel. This is just a contradictory that is purposely put there. _

_And also, people, if you think that you are frankly disappointed by how the story turns out to be, thinking that this whole thing is ridiculous and out of place and completely off the horizon, you can be brutally honest with me in your reviews if you want to, but PLEASE DO EXPLAIN why this story is shitty or crappy or whatever else. I can't respect people who simply say "I don't like this, I don't like that" without any explanation or substantiation to back up their opinions, especially when it is regarding other people's works. _

_Please don't butcher me because I haven't made your hope of 'Kurapika and Kuroro reuniting' come true just yet. So many things are happening in such short period I can't just squeeze them all in one chapter, can I? Have mercy on me -_- But I promise you that next chapter they will DEFINITLY meet. And have some 'explanative' talks, perhaps? =P_

_And sorry for the late update. University life is super hectic. Still trying to adapt here..._

_**Next: **__Meta managed to 'convince' Machi to accompany him after Kuroro, but Kuroro ran into Silva before he reached the hospital. Then again, Kurapika was revived not in the hospital but somewhere else. What was happening? Also, how would Kurapika respond to the fact that Meta had met his father? _


	5. AN: Public Apology

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **

_**PUBLIC APOLOGY**_

_**

* * *

**_

First of all, for **kittycatdanger01**, I'm so so very sorry if I have offended or hurt your feelings in any ways. I didn't mean any harms either, just everything is getting on my nerves, especially the fact that I didn't get any decent time to properly do this fic. I have to steal time here and there to write bits and pieces of this fic, so I guess I'm just taking it out on you and some other guys out there. I'm such a bitch T_T As for the whole religion-related issue that I seemed to have imposed on you, I also apologize for that. I was being self-centered, I completely forgot that there were other religions out there. I'm sorry if I have offended you about your religion. I'm such an ignorant fool. Forgive me? *puppy eyes* (And I'm a Christian, not a Catholic)

I know I definitely have offended the Transformer fans out there because of my horribly brutally one-sided, subjective, and biased opinion about it. I'm so sorry! I was being temperamental there. I'll try to be more cool-headed next time.

So, in conclusion: I APOLOGISE FOR MY RUDENESS. I hope you won't stop reading this fic because of my temperamental outbreak in the latest Author's Note T_T Pretty please?

Most importantly: I LOVE YOU GUYS! XD Thanks for following through my story all the way up to this point and bothering to review at all. I really appreciate it. Will love to hear more from all of you.


	6. Chapter 4: Mayhem

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own HunterxHunter _

_**Story so far: **__Kurapika was finally 'revived' from her poisoning, only to be greeted by the news that Meta was already 'reunited' with Kuroro. Why was she so affected by the news that her eyes would turn scarlet? How was Kuroro dealing with Silva as well? Would Meta really go after them after convincing Machi?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 4**

_**MAYHEM**_

_**

* * *

**_

"Oh, that was fast," the vampire said with mild surprise on his face as his gaze were fixed on a certain spot among the copse surrounding the Yorkshin Central Hospital.

Just as the words "_Cu tatăl său _(with his father)" escaped his mouth, Kurapika's eyes turned scarlet and the next thing Lucian knew, the girl was already up on her feet and was making a mad dash to somewhere else. The moment Kurapika sprung to her feet, she had shocked the life out of her other human friends, and the moment she ran off, all of them had shouted "Kurapika!" in unison and scrambled off to catch up with her—leaving Lucian and Yorn to their own devices.

"Where did they all go?" Yorn asked with incredulity thick in her tone.

"One problem after another…" Lucian muttered to himself, not really answering Yorn's question, while he flipped open his phone and began dialling a certain number.

While waiting for his call to be answered, Lucian regarded Yorn with a cool look and asked: "So what are you going to do now?"

"Go back home, obviously." Yorn said while shrugging. "I don't want to linger in crowded place like this." She touched her horn with her fingers delicately. "I stand out too much."

"Understandable." The vampire nodded. "But all those aside—oh, _b__ună_ (hello)? _Sunt eu._ (it's me)"

Yorn gave him a puzzled and shocked look, before it registered to her that the all-too-pale man had abruptly shifted to talking to that small device he was holding in his hand and pressed closed to his ear. But why was he talking with that small, inanimate object? Curious, Yorn decided to wait and observe. Besides, the man seemed like he had something to tell her.

"Oh c'mon, old man. Don't make my life harder than it already is. I _must_ speak with the Countess _right now_."

He turned around, giving his back profile to Yorn.

"Do you think I have ever called that _vechi vrajitoare_ (old witch) just for chitchat and without any urgent purpose?"

A pause, then Lucian turned slightly paler than he already was.

"NO! No, no, no. Don't tell her that. _Uita-am spus asta_ (forget I said that). No, I never called her old witch. You didn't hear that. I don't want to get squashed in her iron maiden." The last sentence was said in a whisper-like mutter.

The conversation was getting interesting, but something caught Yorn's hawk-like eyes. Since her sense of direction was so screwed up, she made up for it by having very sharp eyes. She caught a glimpse of light from distance, from among the trees in the direction where Kurapika and others had gone to.

_[Well, well. If it isn't my dearest nephew.]_

"Ah, milady! Finally!" If Lucian noticed the slight sinister tone that the Countess had in her voice, he was unaffected by it as if it was just as per normal. "Your butler is really getting too old to move quickly."

_[I assume you are calling me not to discuss about my butler.]_

"Of course not." Lucian rolled his eyes. "I have some issues that I need to ask you."

Yorn had turned her full attention from Lucian to that direction. Again, she saw that ball of bright yellowish light. It looked a bit like explosion, from the way it died off as abruptly as it had sparked.

"Did you send an assassin after Lucifer and his gang?"

_[Mm-hmm… So are they fighting already?]_

Again, Lucian simply ignored the faint malice in her voice. "They are right now," he said with a tired sigh. "Really, milady. Can't you just leave him alone?"

_[Oh, come on, Lucian. Don't be such a spoilsport. Let me have my fun, will you?]_

"When your fun involves murdering a whole bunch of people, with my friend among them? I think not, dear aunt."

Her mind now completely set on checking out the explosions from distance, Yorn made her way away from Lucian. She ran off towards the grove silently, her light footsteps muffled by the grass. The vampire himself remained blissfully unaware of her departure.

"Can't you just call off the contract?" Lucian asked with annoyed tone.

_[Well… I may do so…]_ The Countess deliberately stretched her words.

"Okay. What's the catch?"

There was a pause before the Countess replied to him, but Lucian could virtually feel the Countess grinning maliciously at him. He shuddered at the thought, but kept his mouth wisely shut. He could only cross his fingers while hoping that the woman would not come up with something ridiculous.

_[I happen to hear some rumours regarding Lucifer…]_

Again, the deliberate stretch in her words. Lucian groaned inwardly.

_[…that he has an offspring.]_

"You aren't telling me to bring the kid to you, are you?" There was an obvious horror in his voice, but the Countess simply pushed it aside.

_[My, that's exactly what I have in mind.]_ Her voices sounded terrifyingly cheerful; which only sounded like D-O-O-M for the younger vampire.

"Honestly, Aunt Elizabeth! You are going to be the death of me!"

_[Then you can forget about calling off the contract, too.]_

"I—But—Aaargh! Fine, fine! I'll do something about that. But you MUST call off the contract immediately, right after this call."

_[Sure thing, darling.]_ The Countess said in a sing-song voice that raised the hair on his nape.

"Okay, I'm hanging up."

And he did just that in less than a millisecond. Honestly, talking to that Countess Elizabeth Báthory was really nerve-wracking. With a dramatic sigh, he combed his silken jet-black hair with one hand, smoothening and entangling them at the same time. What to do, what to do? Both Kurapika and Kuroro would skin him alive if they found out about his deal with the Countess. Remembering Yorn after a while of despairing, Lucian turned around to face the Unicorn girl only to find the spot where she had been standing previously empty. Lucian stood stunned for a while, before he started glancing around in search of the girl but found not a single trace of her in the vicinity.

Just like Yorn did, Lucian caught a glimpse of something blasting in the distance. He looked at the direction, and everything dawned to him. Unfortunately, none of that 'everything' was anything good.

"_Sfinte sisoe!_ (holy shit)"

And he dashed to that direction.

* * *

She tossed her cell phone rather carelessly to her canopy bed. The small device landed on the soft, fluffy bed with almost inaudible thump. She giggled lightly as she remembered the flustered way her nephew had talked over the phone. Honestly, her nephew was just too cute to be left alone. His reaction always made it worthwhile to provoke him—unnecessary or not.

"So how is it going?" A voice, one that did not belong to her, spoke.

"Everything is just as you have predicted—or foreseen, in your case."

The owner of the cell phone turned around to regard her guest; a refined lady dressing in scarlet and crimson of flames. Her two-coloured hair; golden and bright red, was draped along her shoulders and back. Her ruby-embedded golden circle sat majestically on her head, with the glittery feather glowing subtly in the dimness of the room. She had a knowing smile etched on her flawless face, her golden eyes laughing without malice in them.

"Netero is such a pain. He could've just made the contact with the Zaoldyck himself. Why asked you to do it? Such long-windedness. What a bummer." the Lady in Red said while taking a sip of the wine that had been prepared for her only.

Elizabeth Báthory; or Lizzie as Phoenix had nicknamed her, only snorted as gracefully as any women from royal lineage could. She crossed one leg over the other, leaning back casually in her soft Victorian gothic chair. Everything around her was gothic; everything was red, white, and black. Her curly jet black hair framed her thin face delicately, giving a stark contrast between the darkness of her hair and the paleness of her skin.

"I guess he has his reasons." She muttered while shrugging carelessly.

Phoenix rolled her eyes in exasperation. If anything, she despised long-windedness.

"But what's the point of doing all these, really? Instead of an explicit request, he had to make me write a letter of request with a very strange, cryptic request to that man? Most of all, how in the deuce did he manage to interpret Netero's order correctly? I didn't even know what I was writing when I wrote down his request exactly down to the last letter." The Countess shook her pretty head in wonderment.

Phoenix grinned at her from ear to ear, and said:

"Well, Netero and Silva Zaoldyck are acquaintances in one way or another. If you ask me, I'd say that they're in the same wavelength. In any case, from what I've foreseen, all these work for the betterment of everyone, so I have nothing to complain about."

The Lady in Red did not bother to hold back her grin. Netero was such a sly old man, and she admired him for that despite her being a supernatural creature herself. Simply put, in the letter of request that Countess Báthory had written in his behalf, it was implied that Silva Zaoldyck was to confront Kuroro Lucifer until the latter was cornered enough. Reason was that Netero wanted to know just how far the young man's capabilities extend to. Netero knew that people like Kuroro Lucifer tended not to show their full strength to anyone else if possible. He was the type who made use of elements of surprises, and who always had some tricks up his sleeves.

Of course it had not been in calculation that Meta would get kidnapped and brought to Yorkshin City, that Illumi would spill the beans to Kuroro himself, that the Spider Head would decide to have a rendezvous at Yorkshin City—of all places—and that Silva Zaoldyck would decide to confront his target in the city itself. Nevertheless, everything was in fate's favour.

"Looks like things will get really interesting." Phoenix muttered. "Which means I need to keep an eye on them. Again."

With a sigh of contentment; since for once after such a long while she got to have an entertainment of some sort, Phoenix leaned back in her plush chair and gazed outside the window of the Countess' private chamber. The moon seemed to be smirking back at her but not mockingly. She smiled back at it wistfully.

"Things just never get boring with Lucifer." The Countess remarked while sipping at her red blood wine. Phoenix wondered vaguely if it really was blood and not red wine. She shrugged the thought as she deemed it irrelevant.

"I can't disagree with that," Phoenix said with a chuckle, but then she frowned slightly as she remembered something. She turned to regard the Countess with a questioning look.

"By the by, aren't you supposed to cancel off the contract?"

* * *

"Oh… Looks like everyone is assembling."

Chairman Netero of the Hunter Association was standing on the balcony of the Yorkshin Central Hospital. He held up a hand with his thumb and index finger forming a hole for him to see through them. It was not like that gesture had any special skills attached to them—it just helped him to focus his sight on certain area. It was a very useful trick, and he found himself doing that a lot during the recent years.

"Chairman, I don't think this is the right thing to do…" Maamen; Netero's secretary with potato-like face, spoke uneasily next to the old man. "Don't you think you should get Kurapika into safety? After all, we went through so much trouble as putting a life-indicator in her so we can track her if something happens to her. And with all those efforts spent…"

Maamen then started rambling about how tough it had been to coax Kurapika into agreeing to be part of their protection scheme. She had been so adamant to be on her own; saying that she did not want to rely on others, but she had conceded after Meta came along. Naturally, it was for the safety of Meta rather than herself. Kurapika was remarkably stubborn; more than any mules could be, but these days she appeared to know when to be wary of risks and wise enough to avoid unnecessary risks. She was not the incorrigibly stubborn person she had been six years ago.

Thing changed, and so did people.

Nevertheless, the reason why Kurapika had survived Yorn's poison was exactly because of that life-indicator. It was a device that would be planted in one's body, and it served as an indicator of one's life—simply put, to tell whether one was alive or dead. When Kurapika was succumbing into paralysis and her systems were beginning to turn off, the life-indicator had notified the Hunter Association and they had sent a special blimp to fetch Kurapika on air and spirited her away to the Yorkshin Central Hospital for emergency treatment. They only managed to halt the spreading of the poison, but not killing the poison at all.

"Be quiet, Maamen. This is just too interesting to pass." Netero waved a dismissive hand at his secretary, telling him to shut up.

"But, Chairman! What if something happen to Kurapi—"

"No harm will come to her. Not as long as he is around."

"He?" Maamen questioned, but soon he put a fist onto his open palm as recognition came to him. "Oh, _him_. Right…"

Chairman Netero of the Hunter Association was really someone not to be underestimated. His connection and networks were unbelievably wide and endless. It was as if nothing on the face of the Earth happened without him knowing about it. Well, except for Ryuusei-gai. It was a region that Netero had tried to avoid at all costs. Maamen did not know the details, but the Chairman did hint that an arrangement had been made in the past and he had no intention of breaking it any time soon.

_Talk about stinginess in suspense…_ Maamen thought grudgingly at Netero's secretiveness. He let out a bit of hints here and there but refused to tell everything. The old man sure knew how to torture someone with mysteries and cryptic remarks.

In any case, both Netero and, naturally, Maamen—he was his _secretary_ not for nothing—were aware of the circumstances going on about Kurapika and a certain S-rank criminal hailing from Ryuusei-gai.

"_Isn't it just convenient? If we are going to conserve the last living member of a tribe, what else would be better than to leave her in the care of the most possessive and jealous criminal with strong inclination for rare artefacts?"_

That was Netero's exact words. Maamen had warned him not to say it out loud in front of Kurapika, otherwise the girl would go into a fit of rage.

"She is approaching their place! This is so exciting!" Netero exclaimed as he leaned further forward as he got more absorbed in his 'observation'.

Maamen could only sigh and roll his eyes.

* * *

Kuroro was wondering on why the supposedly-discreet assassin chose to confront him in a _park_, of all places—though he noticed that the park was as empty as any graveyards, and so was the grove surrounding it. He was not sure on how much noise that they actually made. It was always hard to tell when he was the one engaged in the fight.

Silva made a slashing move with his stiffened hand, trying to cut Kuroro's jugular vein. Kuroro ducked by a hair-breadth, and noticed that the veins on the middle-aged man's man were frighteningly prominent and that his nails were of unusual length. He wondered vaguely if the man was able to manipulate his body parts; such as his nails, at his will. That was very convenient.

The Head of the Zaoldyck family kept a thick mask of indifference, but inwardly he was frowning. The Ryuusei-gai youth before him was not giving all he had—he was dodging with the least effort possible. Not that he himself was giving all he had, but still it was unnerving. That was especially so when he remembered what his father had told him after their last encounter with the Spider Head.

"_That young man is not someone I would like to confront unnecessarily," Zeno Zaoldyck commented out of the blue._

_They were on their way home after they had finished—or more accurately had their contract terminated due to the death of their clients—their job in Yorkshin City. Silva gave his father a deliberate stare of "Explain"; which Zeno could sense even without looking directly at him. The older Zaoldyck scratched his chin and thought over it. _

"_Something about him is not quite right. Like there's something out of place, something that shouldn't be there."_

_That was all the comments that the older assassin could give about Kuroro Lucifer. _

Silva narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Something that shouldn't be there? Whatever could that be? In Silva's eyes, all he saw in Kuroro Lucifer was a dangerously gifted man in the world of kill-or-be-killed. Like his father did, Silva noticed that Kuroro was the counterattack type; he would wait for the right time to strike and would not initiate the first attack. He would turn his opponent's attack back against themselves; he would manipulate them, using the least effort possible on his part.

He snorted mentally to himself.

_It doesn't matter,_ he thought. _Warm-up is over._

With that, true to his words, Silva suddenly gathered his Nen in one of his palms, making a ball of concentrated Nen. In the split second when Kuroro was surprised by the sudden charge-up, Silva threw that ball of energy towards Kuroro. With all speed that he could muster, Kuroro blanketed his arms with Ken just in time when the Nen ball collided with his arms that were raised to protect his front. Upon impact, he was propelled backwards, his feet grinding harshly against the solid ground and leaving a trail in his wake.

Smoke hissed from Kuroro's slightly charred arms, but that was all the damage that he took—the ruined sleeve aside. Kuroro shook his arms casually to rid himself of the smokes while a thin, faintly sinister smirk played in his lips.

"Why are you testing me?"

Kuroro's question made Silva raised a questioning eyebrow. He did not answer, though. Kuroro pressed on with his 'interrogation'.

"What did the countess request _exactly_?"

This time Silva narrowed his eyes. Damn kid had very sharp mind.

"I'm not under obligation to answer you," he merely stated, before he fell into yet another routine of offense and defence with the other man.

At one point of time, Kuroro was almost a millisecond late in protecting his head. Had he missed that millisecond, he might have lost his entire head. Silva had plastered his kick with Kou, and if that kick had really connected with his head instead of his Ken-blanketed arm, the kick would have blasted his head into bits of pieces. Consequently, his arm took the full blow and presently it was hanging by his shoulder quite uselessly.

Kuroro gauged a safe distance from the older assassin to briefly inspect the extent of the damage. The ulna bone and the radius bone were broken, while the humerus bone of his upper arm had a nasty huge fracture. They all would heal. During these times, he would remember Kurapika's Holy Chain, and he would vaguely tell himself that it would be so convenient to have such skill at his disposal.

As Kuroro looked up and gave Silva a measuring glance, he could not help but to feel relieved that his decision not to bring Meta along was wise. He remembered the tough time he had convincing the boy not to come along. Heck, because of the incident along it had made Kuroro wonder on how Kurapika could survive raising a child alone.

Whenever he took public transports, he had often seen a child throwing tantrum; leaving the mother flustered and at loss on how to hush the hollering little fiend. Some had done a poor job calming the child, resulting in the child being a loudspeaker of cacophony for the rest of the ride while the other passengers stared uncomfortably at them. Some others had resorted to violence; mostly by slapping the child or chiding them quite harshly.

Now the problem was: how would he deal with this situation?

Oh, yes. Metatron Lucifer Kuruta was throwing a tantrum. Quite a nasty one, on top of that.

The reason had been simple: the boy wanted to come along with Kuroro as he looked for Kurapika, but Kuroro did not give his consent. Both had sensed that something terrible—if not calamitous—had happened to her. Meta had instantaneously urged Kuroro to go look for her; which actually an unnecessary act as Kuroro had resolved himself to find her no matter what. If he could feel the turbulence in Kurapika's Nen in such accuracy and vividness, it could only mean that she was nearby—or at least she was in Yorkshin City. He had no idea on how she managed to do it, but her arrival had been an abrupt one.

Lucian's following call had then proved his suspicion as correct.

Kuroro was against the idea of Meta tagging along because he felt that it would be wiser for the blond little boy to stay as inconspicuous as possible, given the precarious situation he was in at the moment; i.e. being in the to-hunt list of the head of the Zaoldyck assassin family. Also, he had yet to find out how many people out there in Yorkshin alone knew of Meta. Kuroro, being the prudent Spider Head he was, would want to avoid unnecessary problems as much as possible—except when he _wanted_ that extra hassles.

Nevertheless, children were an incredulously stubborn bunch and Meta was no exception.

He had howled like a wounded beast, crying and screaming like how a little four-years-old boy would when he was very much upset. Kuroro had been stunned to suddenly be confronted by such tantrums. He only stood speechless, staring at the boy with blank expression despite his mild shock.

_What am I supposed to do?_ He wondered. After a while more, the noise was starting to hurt his eardrums. The boy sure had quite some lungs there.

"Metatron." He said with firm voice, getting tired of the howling and yelling.

Much to his wonder and surprise, the boy quieted down almost instantly. His tears were still overflowing, though, and his eyes—ones that snapped open the moment he heard his name being called—were still in their grand scarlet hue. The most he did was to sob and hic, but he was quiet and was looking at him with those hopeful eyes again. Kuroro took a seat by the bed so that he was eye-level with the blond boy. Meta's eyes never left him as he did so.

"Why do you want to go?" Kuroro questioned Meta.

Meta opened his mouth to speak, but his words were incoherent as he was still struggling with the sobs and hic. Kuroro waited patiently until he was calm enough to answer properly.

"I want to see Mom and you together…"

"Why?"

Meta gave him a confused look. It was clear that he did not know how to address that question. Kuroro himself almost chuckled mirthlessly at the irony of it—he could literally see Kurapika sneering mockingly at him about asking 'why' questions when he disliked it so much.

"Why would I _not_ want to?" Meta asked back, his face still confused and puzzled. It was as if he did not understand why the man could not comprehend something so simple and straightforward. A child would surely want to see their parents together, wouldn't they?

Kuroro frowned at this. He definitely still disliked being questioned 'why'. He leaned forwards and put his elbows on his laps while clasping his hands together—it was a repertoire of habits that he had often used when trying to persuade someone. He scrutinised the boy's eyes, and finally said softly:

"It isn't safe for you to come along with me." He said in all honesty.

"Why not?" The boy asked while drying his face with his tiny hands.

"Someone is after me."

Of course that kind of explanation did not suffice for a four-years-old boy; because he could hardly comprehend the magnitude of that statement. More upset than before, Meta looked like he had his chest swollen as he seemed to be preparing to start another round of tantrum. Hastily, Kuroro held up a hand to stop the boy from screaming his lungs off yet. Meta held back his yelling at the tip of his tongue only.

Kuroro looked at him warily, before he sighed.

"I will bring your mother here." He finally said, hoping that it would placate the boy. It really did. The boy's visage brightened up considerably—very much so that it made Kuroro almost cringed at the drastic change.

"Promise?" Meta whispered in excitement.

"Only if you agree to stay here with the others and be a good boy." Kuroro straightened up and put a challenging expression on his face.

Meta instantly frowned at it but he did not object. He cast his eyes down to the rag that was his make-shift blanket, and his little fingers began twisting and twiddling with the coarse fabrics.

"Promise?" This time, it was Kuroro who asked. He had a feeling that children were very sensitive and particular about the word 'promise', and he suspected that Meta was very critical about promises—no doubt the result of his mother's strict tutelage about 'keeping true to your words'.

With a very small nod, Meta looked up and raised his tiny hand towards Kuroro. He held up his little finger to him, while the other fingers were curled into a fist. Kuroro gave him a questioning eyebrow.

"Promise…" Meta said in a whisper that was imbued with a tone of defeat.

Only then Kuroro belatedly realised that the boy wanted to do a pinky-promise with him. Awkward as it seemed, Kuroro did the childish gesture—anything to keep the boy's temper in check. It would do no harms, anyway. Even so, the boy still had the grand dissatisfied look on his face—one that inexorably reminded him of Kurapika's own expression of displeasure whenever she was unhappy about his decision.

Kuroro gave away a very thin smile despite himself. Despite the uncanny resemblance between the boy and Kurapika, Kuroro noticed that the boy's eyes took after him although not entirely. He had a swell of satisfaction as well when he saw the boy's Scarlet Eyes. They had not been as bright as Kurapika's were, but the captivating factor of the boy's Scarlet Eyes were not the brightness but the drastic change from the dark hue to the stunning scarlet hue. He took great pleasure in it, especially in knowing that he had taken a part in creating those eyes.

Before he got up and walked out of the room, Kuroro had lightly ruffled the boy's golden hair in an absentminded way—just like he had often patted Kurapika's golden crown of hair during their long ago journey together under Hassamunnin's spell.

* * *

A body hit the carpeted floor with a soft, muffled thud; its eyes were clouded in the likeness to a dead fish's eyes. Other bodies that suffered from the same fate littered the luxurious room. The only living people in that room were a beautiful man, and his flame-haired companion. The man with silky jet-black hair stood in the centre of the room with his back to his companion—who was dressing up in ridiculous clown costume—as he put back his lethal needles back to their place.

"Hisoka, for the thousandth time, stop following me around when I'm doing my job." Illumi said with his monotonous voice, but anyone who knew him better would notice the tinge of annoyance in his flat voice.

"But I'm boree~~d," the said man responded with his spooky sing-song voice. "Besides, it never tires me out to see you in action."

"If you are so bored, you may as well go to Yorkshin City." Illumi said deadpan, not bothering to address him properly.

"Metropolitan life doesn't interest me." Hisoka pouted dissatisfiedly.

"I'm not talking about the city." Illumi elaborated. "Something interesting is happening over there."

"And how do you know?"

Illumi spun slowly and gracefully on his heels, for the first time regarding Hisoka straight in the eyes with his eyes that were as deep as the black hole. There was a knowing light in those seemingly dead eyes, though.

"I simply _know_."

From the way Illumi exerted his words, Hisoka then knew that his words were more than credible. In the next few hours, Hisoka was already boarding the first blimp heading to the metropolitan city of Yorkshin.

* * *

After a while of rigorous running and stumbling, Kurapika was starting to feel her limbs properly, and she began to traverse the grove floor more deftly in trained movements. The jutting roots of the trees no longer gave her problems.

The inside of her head was a whirlwind of foreboding thoughts. Hearing that Meta was with Kuroro Lucifer was incentive enough to make her force her body into action, unprepared and unfit as her present condition was.

She was not sure where she was heading to. To be exact, she had not consciously thought of where to go, but subconsciously she had detected a painfully familiar Nen nearby. She had assumed that since Lucian told her that Meta was with Kuroro, it would mean that she would find Meta if she found Kuroro. And Kuroro was just around the corner of that grove, somewhere on the other side of the clusters of the trees. She noted the lack of presence of Meta's Nen, but then again the boy hardly knew Nen. The best he could do was to utilise that 'wild animal skill' that Gon had taught him—to blend himself with his surrounding to hide, just like wild animals did in their respective habitats.

As she continued running, Kurapika frowned as she thought of her son and his father.

Despite Meta looking very much like her, Kurapika could not help but to notice a part of Kuroro Lucifer in the boy. It was the way the boy looked at her. It was unnerving, because despite the lack of abysmal darkness in those eyes, the way he looked at her was so much like the way he always did. There was something about his eyes that she could not really describe. It was as if she was not sure what was going on in his head despite being his mother. It was as if Meta knew much more than he let on.

Those were the times when she was afraid of her own son.

However, that was not the reason why she did not want Meta to meet with Kuroro Lucifer. At least not yet.

* * *

For once after such a long time, his outfit was not unscathed. There were cuts everywhere, although that was all the damage that he had taken. The same applied to the man he was fighting with, except for one broken arm. Though the raven-haired man's sleeves were almost completely ruined, his overall outfit was more or less in the same state as his was. In his lifetime career as a professional assassin, he had almost always come back home with his outfit intact. He could count with one hand the number of occasions when he had returned with cuts.

Silva remembered vaguely that the last time he had fought Kuroro Lucifer, the man had also managed to inflict a shallow cut on his arm—poisoned one even, though he was immune to most poisons anyway.

Truthfully, in terms of raw strength Kuroro was actually far weaker compared to Silva and Kuroro was very aware of that. Past encounters and a broken arm were more than enough lessons to teach him that—not that he was aware of it just recently. He knew that since their first encounter. That was why he made up for his lack of raw strength in his speed and the vast disposal of various skills he had stolen from other Nen users.

As the two men danced their deadly dance, both moving in their own characteristic graces, Kuroro remembered the brief conversation he had with the elderly Zaoldyck in their last encounter in Yorkshin City.

"_One on one, who would have won?"_

"_Pfft. Me, of course. If you had decided to fight with all of your strength, it would be another story. You really thought I didn't understand your game?"_

At that time, Silva had given him the hard look that clearly indicated that he was not too happy for being unable to kill him. Having practically travelled around the world and fighting with many other Nen users of various skills and stealing their skills, Kuroro was one of the better judges of characters and had better insight on others' skills and powers. In any case, he knew for sure that he would survive any encounters with the Zaoldyck assassins, boastful as it might sound but was proven right by his survival from assassination attempt on him by two of the Zaoldyck assassins. However so, he had yet to try killing one of them.

_Should I test it out now? _Kuroro wondered idly. Come to think of it, this was already their third encounter, and all of them were because someone requested him to finish off either the Genei Ryodan or him. Not that he was having serious problem dealing with him—though he had to admit that the Zaoldyck assassin was a tough opponent—but he was getting tired of it. Should he really finish it once and for all?

Just as Kuroro was beginning to seriously entertain that idea, and as Silva was about to launch a full scale attack on Kuroro, the bushes rattled restlessly and soon enough a third party stumbled upon their battlefield.

Both fighters immediately and unanimously directed their attention to the intruder. How surprise Kuroro was to recognise the third party in one glance. His eyes widened slightly. Fortunately Silva was busy with weighing the current situation, otherwise Kuroro would have been caught completely off-guard and it could have cost his life.

The third party—who was none other than a certain Kuruta—was equally shocked but for different reason. She had expected to see Silva Zaoldyck there. With both men's Nen flaring like mad, she could not help but to recognise the owner of those Nen. She could guess in less than a heartbeat that they had been fighting; the evident was all over the place that even a blind person could not miss it. What shocked her was that the absence of Meta. Where was he?

Come to think of it, she could have used her Dowsing Chain to straight away find Meta, but she had decided against it since she could sense Kuroro just nearby. She had blindly assumed that since Lucian had said that the boy was 'with his father', then right at that moment the boy was really physically with Kuroro. How stupid of her.

Nevertheless, regardless of all those, Kurapika Kuruta was still not prepared to suddenly come face to face with Kuroro Lucifer. Her throat felt parched dry. She knew that she would have to deal with this, but the real experience was really a different thing than mere imagination.

Before either of them could utter a single syllable to each other, Silva changed the target of his attacks—Kurapika. He dived towards the blonde, hand—nails and all—brandished like a butcher knife that was ready to tear her into bits. Both Kurapika and Kuroro had not anticipated this drastic change of course that Silva Zaoldyck would take. Kurapika was especially taken aback; from what Killua told her of his family's job protocol, they did not give a damn about anything else in their contract except for the targets and the payments.

So the question was: Why would Silva attack Kurapika while his target was clearly the Genei Ryodan?

For commoners, a difference of a few milliseconds might not make any big difference, but for people like Kuroro Lucifer, Kurapika Kuruta, and Silva Zaoldyck, such was not the case. Had Kurapika not reacted instinctively just in time, she would have been dead for the second time in her life with her beating heart gouged out. Had Kuroro not responded properly with Kurapika's defensive reaction and Silva's sudden change of course of attacks, he would have found himself losing a part of his world.

When Kurapika found Silva after her, she had summoned her Nen chains just in time to wrap those cold metals around Silva's lethal hand that was aimed for her neck. With both hands, Kurapika tried to keep that dangerous hand as far away from her as possible. It took all she had with her Reinforcement Nen to keep the older Zaoldyck at bay. Kurapika's Scarlet Eyes were ablaze in the darkness of the night, and Silva inevitably noticed them.

He frowned slightly at the recognition of those Scarlet Eyes, but what surprised him most was not those Scarlet Eyes. In the next second to come, the chains wrapped around his wrist suddenly grew white-hot as if it was set ablaze. The silvery metal turned slightly bluish in colour, and there was a sickening sizzling sound coming from it. Surprised by the turn of event, especially when she started catching the characteristic smell of burning flesh, Kurapika released the tight grip of her chains around Silva's wrist at the same time Silva jerked away his hand from her.

The next moment, before Silva could execute his next move, Kuroro had delivered a nasty kick to his side, sending the professional assassin plummeting into the row of trees surrounding the park. His move had effectively declared a good safe distance between Kurapika and Silva. Kurapika found herself staring at his back—a back that she had missed for the past five years. Sooner enough, though, he turned halfway to question her.

"Why are you here?"

His voice sounded incredulous. Kuroro knew that he had asked Lucian to take care of Kurapika, but he had not expected her to recover _that_ fast. Not to mention that from the way she had moved earlier, one would have not expected her to have been dying just a few moments ago. With the flush on her cheeks due to the brief adrenaline rush provoked by Silva just now, she looked just as healthy as any persons could be.

"I can ask you the same thing." Kurapika said back to him, her voice challenging and her eyes daring him to answer her.

Before either of them could answer each other's question, their attentions were grabbed by the figure that was emerging from the curtain of dusts that was raised the moment Silva had crashed into the rows of trees. Silva came up casually, dusting his slightly tattered outfit carelessly while fixing his eyes on Kurapika. He advanced towards them and stopped a few metres away. He was still scrutinising Kurapika intensely.

"You were one of the mercenaries hired to exterminate the Genei Ryodan," Silva finally stated flatly. "Back then in Yorkshin City."

Kurapika twitched a bit upon the mention of that event. She was not all too fond of that memory.

"And you are Killua's father," she said back, hoping to gain favour by mentioning Killua's name.

There was a flicker of something in the silver-haired man's eyes, but Kurapika could hardly perceive the meaning behind it. Silva's face remained as impassive as ever, but he did stop attacking them.

"Kurapika!"

Three figures stumbled from among the bushes from where Kurapika had similarly stumbled before. Silva spared a glance at the trio barging into the battlefield, and his eyes were glued on one particular person with the same shade of hair colour as his.

"Dad…" Killua muttered under his breath, eyes wide and disbelieving.

Killua was a sharp boy. One look at the surrounding, and he was able to surmise the ongoing event at the present. He only needed to look at Kuroro's and Silva's torn outfit to realise that there had been a fierce fighting. In fact, it did not take a Sherlock Holmes to deduce that the fighting had been so nasty that the extent of the collateral damage incurred almost rendered the park flat. None of the structures in the park was left intact.

One look at his father's outfit, he came to really comprehend the extent of Kuroro Lucifer's capability. He had worked with his father on some missions before in the past, and he had had a close-up observation of how his father worked his trade. Killua had not known any other Nen users who had managed to inflict so much damage to his father. Well, actually it was not _that_ much, but considering that this was Silva Zaoldyck; head of the Zaoldyck assassin family who had rarely returned home with cuts, that number of cuts was already something. Then again, Killua recalled hearing from his grandfather about people who managed to escape them over and over again.

The old man had mentioned two people: one had been Chairman Netero—Killua was not too surprised by that—and the other one had been who Zeno had dubbed as "arrogant, good-looking kid". At that time Killua had only been slightly interested in that, but soon enough he lost interest in it as he could not care less about how his family members were doing.

Looking at both his father and Kuroro Lucifer right at the moment, he could not help but to think that it all made sense. Still, it made Killua wondered just _how far_ Kuroro Lucifer's capabilities really extended to. He had contemplated asking Kurapika that before but he had ditched the idea as soon as it had come since he knew that she would not answer him. He was aware that Kurapika would be the one of the scarce people outside the Genei Ryodan circle who knew of the man's abilities almost intimately.

Killua's train of thoughts were interrupted when Silva turned to regard him with a faint reprimanding look in his eyes.

"I told you not to have anything to do with the Genei Ryodan."

Surprisingly, instead of Killua it was Kurapika who responded.

"Don't lump us together with the Spiders." Kurapika snarled at him with a hiss.

Upon seeing this reaction, Kuroro could not help but to secretively chuckle to himself—still the ol' fierce Kurapika he knew. It was kind of…reassuring in some ways.

"At least I don't get on their bad side." Killua only shrugged uncaringly.

Silva narrowed his eyes slightly and made a short, low grunt. He then muttered a "Don't get in our way" to the boy before turning his attention back to Kuroro again. Without looking at Kurapika; who was standing slightly behind him, Kuroro muttered an order.

"Move away."

"No."

The response had come in less than a breath. So firm and decisive it was, that it made Kuroro turned his head to regard her with a questioning yet puzzled look. How more confused he was when he saw a shadow of guilt on her face.

"There are things—"

She never had the chance to finish that sentence. Seeing that Kuroro was caught off-guard because of Kurapika's "No" remark, Silva took this chance to launch his attack. In less than a heartbeat, he had amassed a ball of Nen in each palm and threw them towards the pair.

Kurapika, who had a whole view of Silva, was the one who deflected those balls. She lashed at them with her Nen chains, but again an unusual phenomenon occurred. There were faint blue flame engulfing her chains, and the moment the chains came into contact with those energy balls, there was a burst of explosion and it seemed as if the balls of Nen had been consumed by a blue flame.

Everyone present was shocked and stunned—including Kurapika herself. Wide-eyed and shocked, it took her a few more seconds before she remembered those blue flames. She had seen them before on several occasions. The latest ones would be when Silva had tried to attack her and the flame had burnt his hand, and when Yorn had showered her with torrents of poisonous arrows. At that time, it was very faint but she did see the flickers of blue flames from the ashes of the burnt arrows.

In that short seconds that seemed to have stretched indefinitely, Kuroro stared at her with disbelieving eyes, while she stared at her chains with equally puzzled light in her scarlet-hue eyes. The illusion of slowed time was broken when a shower of arrows made its way to Silva—who avoided them without any difficulties. Kurapika recognised those arrows; after all, she had been their targets before.

"What in Odin's name do you think you are doing?" Came another familiar voice from another side of the grove surrounding the now-demolished park.

Yorn stood in her full glory of a huntress; her humongous bow ready in her hand with the set of arrows notched skilfully. She had a look of indignation on her face, as if Silva had wronged her greatly. Her braided auburn hair was a mess, with leaves sticking here and there and some strands of her hair jutting wildly from the braid.

Silva frowned. Why was everyone interfering with his job that night?

"Don't you dare trying to kill the person that I've tried so damn hard to save from Morrigan's clutch! You kill her then I'll—UMPH!"

Before the young woman could utter any more threats and some impending profanities that were already dangling from the tip of her tongue, a certain coal-black-haired man had gagged her from behind.

"Honestly! _O astfel de tare si vulgar fata! _(Such a loud and vulgar girl)" He hissed to her while putting the other arm around her neck.

Kuroro felt like massaging the bridge of his nose. Things were getting into such a mess that they threatened to go out of control. No, they were already out of control. And why hadn't Lucian taken care of the 'murder contract' between Silva Zaoldyck and Countess Elizabeth Báthory?

Suddenly feeling tired and losing his appetite for a good fight with Silva, Kuroro only let out a light sigh—one that only Kurapika could hear due to their close proximity.

Kurapika only heard the sigh and a "This is ridiculous" that followed after, before a hand grabbed her wrist and the next moment she felt a sense of weightlessness and massive disorientation. Everything vanished from her vision for a brief moment. She felt like she was seeing nothing at all, not even darkness or anything else. It was just…nothing. She felt a drop in her guts, and she felt her heart leaping up to choke her own throat. The only solid thing that she was aware of was the cold hand encircled around her thin wrist.

When her senses returned to her, she found herself standing on legs that felt like jelly or water. She staggered unevenly, but a strong hand grabbed at her upper arm to steady her. Gratefully and without thinking further, she leaned on that hand to borrow some time to readjust her sense of equilibrium.

"Danchou!"

That word turned out to be the one that helped her regain her equilibrium fast. Kurapika snapped open her eyes, and to her dismay found herself in the Headquarter of the Genei Ryodan. Almost all of them were there. Yes, _almost._

"Where is Meta?" Kuroro demanded with cool voice.

Kurapika's brain froze. What? He left Meta in the Spiders' care? How dare—

"Taking a nap," came the hasty answer from Phinks.

Amusingly, both Kuroro and Kurapika shot him a piercingly dubious look. Phinks cringed at this, but said nothing except for glancing at his colleagues to back him up.

"He really is sleeping, Danchou." Franklin decided that he was feeling generous that day. "In the backroom. Shalnark is looking after him."

Kurapika felt a breeze of relief upon hearing that it was Shalnark who was looking after Meta. The sandy-brown haired young man was most credible among the Spiders, as far as Meta was concerned. Kuroro looked around and noticed one missing member.

"And Machi?"

"Well…" This time, all the Spiders exchanged glances to each other.

Kuroro raised a questioning eyebrow. He released his grip around Kurapika's upper arm and folded his arm across his chest.

"What happened?" He demanded.

"Things happened…" Phinks muttered.

Kurapika rolled her eyes heavenward. _Of course things happened, you idiot,_ she had muttered inwardly. Deciding that she was not concerned about Machi and any other Spiders, she began marching towards this 'backroom' that Franklin had mentioned. However, before she had taken even the third step across the room, she was stopped by an iron grip on her arm.

With indignation, Kurapika whipped her head around to glare at Kuroro, but the glare died down when she saw his face. She recognised that stare in his obsidian eyes; she had memorised it since five years ago. Those eyes practically said: "I'm not letting you go until I get what I need," and it went along with his spoken words:

"Let him sleep. We need to talk."

Some of the Spiders went _"Oops…" _mentally.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Sorry for the late update again. Seriously, I think I must announce that the update will be once every FORTNIGHT now. I can't help it. I'll die if I try to attempt once a week update. Sleep for 2 – 4 hours everyday, trying to catch up with all assignments. Well, anyway… A bit of actions in this chapter, I'm not sure if it's enough in quality and quantity, though. Some of you may go: "Finally! They meet up!" but soon enough go "Dang! It ends here? What the—" Pardon me for that =P I know this whole chapter seems all messy and disorderly, and that's exactly why the title is 'Mayhem'. And as per usual, you are free to pitch in your ideas and speculations *grin grin* By the way, I didn't even bother to re-read the whole thing for final check. So if there're some minor errors, just ignore them, ok? But if the errors are major, please do notify me. _

_Oh, for your information, Countess Elizabeth Báthory was notorious for the alleged crime of bathing in virgins' blood to preserve her beauty. She was often dubbed the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula because of that, but I'm not too sure if she's related to him in any ways or not. 'Iron maiden' was said to be her favourite tool of torture. _

_**Next: **__"We need to talk." Kuroro decided that it was time to explain everything and get things right. Kurapika seemed like she had something to say as well. How would things go? What actually happened with the Spiders; especially Machi, while Kuroro was out to deal with Silva? Also, it looked like a new problem was brewing with Hisoka heading to Yorkshin City._


	7. Chapter 5: Reconnecting

_**Disclaimer: **__I still do not own HunterxHunter yet._

_**Story so far:**__ Kurapika finally came face to face with Kuroro. In fact, he even spirited her away to the Spiders' lair. Kuroro had refused to let her see Meta and demanded a private talk with her, but was she prepared for it?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 5**

_**RECONNECTING**_

_**

* * *

**_

"_Let him sleep. We need to talk."_

Those words sent a chill down her spine. She had things to tell him, true, but when she physically heard those words, she could not help but to realise that she actually dreaded it. The way Kuroro had spoken those words did not help either. If anything, it made her stomach churn—it was as if he had declared a decree that could not be refuted. It was as if a king had given out an order that could not be denied.

So that was how Kurapika found herself sitting on a lavish chair with both her arms clutching the armrest like they were her lifeline. Her eyes were directed to the carpeted floor as if it was the most interesting thing to behold in the world—though the pattern of the carpet was indeed interesting.

Kuroro had brought her to a café in the lobby of a hotel, where they could get a decent talk without having the other Spiders snooping around like fools. Honestly, Kurapika was grateful that he had chosen a hotel café of all places; that particular place did give a very professional, all-business atmosphere and it helped to compose her unlike the melancholic ambience of restaurants or bustling atmosphere of bistros. She would act professional, hopefully without her emotional side interfering and jeopardising the composure she had built up with effort.

A soft clink of glass made Kurapika look up. She almost regretted that action, because her gaze met with his for the briefest moment when Kuroro was putting down a glass of drink on the table in front of her. Kurapika quickly looked away; she still was not ready for it. Kuroro commented nothing about her reaction, either.

The raven-haired man sat down quietly and observed Kurapika in the most deliberate manner. Inwardly, Kurapika grumbled begrudgingly—how could he so unabashedly and openly study her just like that?

Silence ensued; and it was one of those rare silence between them—the awkward one.

"It's been five years…" Kuroro finally broke the silence with his quiet words.

Kurapika did not respond. She fixed her gaze still to the carpet beneath her. Seeing that no response was forthwith from the girl, he continued with another question.

"How are you doing?"

"Why do you even care?"

Her words had shot from her mouth harshly and snappishly. It was a response that had come out of reflex, therefore exactly mirroring the very feelings she was harbouring in their purest state—the bitterness, the resentment, the distress. Those words were like the process of cutting the red ribbon in an official inauguration; they marked the opening of the floodgate of Kurapika's bottled up thoughts and feelings.

She looked up and behind those dark contact lenses that she was wearing, her Scarlet Eyes burned like a dying ember; the tell-tale sign that she was obviously still trying to rein in her emotions. It would do no good for her to lose control to her emotions. She might be a girl, a woman—an emotional being by nature—but she was not about to be one of those hysterical women. She would act professional.

Kuroro looked on, waiting for her to have her say. He could sense the words that were already at the tip her tongue, eagerly waiting to be lashed out at him.

"Why would you care…" she repeated, with much more controlled yet strained voice. "…whether I'm doing fine or not."

Still Kuroro had not said anything.

Kurapika opened her mouth to talk, but no words came out of it. There were so many things to say, so many questions to ask, but they were all fighting for priority; to be said first among all others. Simply said, she was overwhelmed by how fast her brain was repeating those thoughts in her mind. In the end, they were all too entangled and overlapping that she could not even think anymore. Her mind grew numb and too disoriented.

Kuroro still sat in silence and his gaze was still transfixed at her. He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands. He could see that she was struggling with her own thoughts, struggling to choose her words. He could wait if needed be, no matter how long.

A few seconds turned to a few minutes. When it was closing to half an hour, Kuroro decided that it could not go on like that. Not that he was growing impatient, but he noticed several eyes glancing to their direction. Of course. It would seem rather strange if there were two people sitting facing each other yet there was no exchange of words at all, and the beverages remained untouched. Not to mention that while one was emitting an aura of immense distress and hostility, the other one was giving out a cold, uncaring attitude to the world. Anyone with sharp enough mind and observation skill would deduce that an ill wind was coming from them.

Kuroro eventually got up and announced:

"Let's go up. It's inconvenient to talk here with all these people around."

Kurapika did not protest. Truth to be told, the reason why she was holding back in her words was also because of her self-consciousness. She was aware of the people loitering around the café and the hotel lobby. She could not afford to let the world knew of her circumstances if she was to lose control of herself—aka when she started yelling and shouting and screaming her heads off.

Receiving no resistance whatsoever from Kurapika, Kuroro spun on his heels and marched out of the café and towards the reception desk. The receptionist, a young woman well in her late twenties, was instantly flustered to see a dashing young man coming to her when she had been stealing glances at him for the past few minutes. Did the man notice her rudely staring at him? Would she get into trouble for 'harassing' the guest?

"I would like to book a room. A soundproofed one. I take it that this hotel affords such facility?" Kuroro asked with neutral, straight face. Oh, he did not forget the small amiable smile that almost melted the young woman on the spot.

"Y—yes, of course we do! Hold on for a minute, I will book the room for you!" The young woman stuttered and her voice was high-pitch from the nervousness.

Kurapika, who had followed after him in heavy silence, noticed the receptionist's reaction and rolled her eyes in exasperation. _This kind of reaction again,_ she thought wearily. Deep inside, though, she took comfort in seeing one of the 'usual occurrences' that used to happen during their journey six years back.

The young receptionist was true to her words. In about a minute, Kuroro and Kurapika were already heading to the lift that would take them to their room—a soundproofed VIP room on the highest level of the hotel building. Kurapika had snorted mockingly when she was told by the flushed receptionist that it was a VIP room. The man was still as royal and liberal in his spending as he could ever be.

The lift gave a faint, characteristic "ding!" and the elegantly decorated lift door swished open almost soundlessly. As they stepped into the small confinement of the lift, a peaceful thought crossed Kurapika's mind:

_Still the same Kuroro Lucifer I know…_

_

* * *

_

"I'm beat…" A certain lanky young man complained as he let his body sank deep into the embrace of a king-sized bed.

"Quit complaining, Leorio. You sound just exactly like an old man." Killua said rather irritably as he rummaged through the fridge, looking for anything sweet to gobble down in attempt to appease his own growing frustration.

"You never complain when it's Gon who's complaining. Talk about favouritism…" Leorio grumbled in muffled voice as he pressed his face against the cool fabrics of the quilt.

"Shut up."

Gon, who was just as weary as the other two were, surveyed them from the chair he was occupying. He understood why they were irritable. It was inarguably a long day; with all the rushing to Yorkshin City, spending the entire day searching for a boy in the metropolitan city, and then rushing to the hospital only to find themselves being shepherded into the forest surrounding the hospital by none other than Chairman Netero himself, and then running after Kurapika only to find Silva Zaoldyck fighting with Kuroro Lucifer, and finally—most tiring of all—trying to persuade Killua's father to give up chasing after Kuroro who had teleported away while bringing along Kurapika with him. In the end, if it was not for Netero's intervention, they would not have succeeded in stopping the senior assassin.

However, what irritated Killua and Leorio the most was the fact that it had actually been Netero who had hired Silva Zaoldyck.

xXx

"Dad! Stop it! He's got our friend!" Killua tried to reason with his father, but apparently it fell on deaf ears—or rather, stubborn ears.

"Have you forgotten our job description, Killua?" He coldly responded.

Killua gulped hard. Of course he had not forgotten it. Despite having abandoned that profession for years, his brain would never forget that teaching that had drilled into his head days and nights since his childhood. One of the assassin decrees that his family upheld was: disregard third part, focus only on the main target. Interestingly, Zeno had always stressed on "do not kill anyone else aside from the target" part of their decrees.

Which meant Silva would not kill Kurapika if he ever caught up with Kuroro wherever he was.

Still, Killua could not sit well with the prospect of his father going after Kuroro Lucifer. Not that he was concerned of that (irritating) man's well-being, but he knew Kurapika well enough to know that she would interfere—especially knowing the circumstances she was in.

Silva was already shifting; ready to make the chase after the 'fleeing' target before Killua could come up with other smart protests, but another voice stopped him.

"Hold on right there."

All heads turned to the source of the new voice, and found themselves looking at none other than Netero, the Chairman of the Hunters Association. Grudgingly, the old man had a cheerful countenance plastered on his face as per normal.

"It's okay. There is no more need to disturb him and his gang. You have done enough. I will pay you full as per the contract," Netero said with a smile tugging behind his thick white moustache and beard.

Silva gave him a look that could not be discerned even by Killua. He thought that he saw wariness mixed with respect in his father's eyes, but that could not be the case, could it? His father never respected anyone else except for the elder members of the family. Then again, Killua remembered that Netero had been the sole person on Earth to have emerged alive from direct confrontation with Maha Zaoldyck. Killua was not sure on how strong his great-great-grandfather was since he had not been able to go on a mission with that dwarf of an old man, but from what he heard from Illumi—who often accompanied Maha in his mission—the old man was still a force to reckon with.

All those aside, after hearing Netero's words the three of them—Killua, Gon, and Leorio—could not help but to get nonplussed. Were their hearings still working perfectly?

"Why?" Gon cried out in total bewilderment.

Killua frowned at this. Why would Netero hire Silva to eliminate the Genei Ryodan when he could just do it himself? And what was the point of it, anyway? From what he heard from Kurapika, Netero seemed to be aware of her unusual circumstances as well—and so inevitably he knew of the delicate relationship between them—or rather, _her_—and the Spider Head.

"Old man, if this is some kind of joke then it's a totally sick joke." Leorio groaned with squeaky voice, but Netero only responded with his characteristic "Ohohoho" laugh.

"Hn." Silva only grunted disinterestedly. "I will be waiting for the transfer."

And off he went.

xXx

"Aaaargh!" Killua let out a cry of irritation as he started pulling his silvery hair in distress. His antic earned all attention from his two other friends.

"Killua?" Gon asked with small voice, half afraid that his best friend was straining his sanity.

"What the hell is happening here? Can _anyone_ explain to me?" He cried out again while stomping towards the chair next to Gon.

"We won't be having all these headaches if one of us knows what's going on." Leorio muttered.

"Urgh! Useless! Hopeless!" The ex-assassin threw his arms heavenwards in exasperation before he stuffed his hand into his pocket, fished out a bar of chocolate, ripped apart the wrapping, and wolfed it down with vengeance. Chocolate was always the best anti-depressant for him.

While Killua was trying to anti-depress himself, Gon was busy in his own thoughts. He had the feeling that he had forgotten something important, but what was it…

"Oh!" He exclaimed while jumping off his chair.

Leorio had not bothered to look up from the bed, but he did let out a groan.

"What is it now, Gon?" He mumbled sleepily.

"What about Meta?"

The other two gave a sharp gasp as Killua stopped chewing and dropped a bite of chocolate to the floor while Leorio looked up to him with a horror-stricken ashen pale face.

They had completely forgotten about him.

* * *

"How is he doing?" Phinks asked in a whisper as he peeked into the 'bedroom'.

"Still sleeping soundly." Shalnark answered for him without averting his gaze from the screen of his laptop.

"Is he still alive?"

Shalnark let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. He turned away from his laptop and _glared_ at the eyebrow-less man.

"Still breathing, yes. His soul is still inside his body, yes. So will you just quit checking on him for every single five minutes?"

Phinks had his eyes downcast to the filthy floor.

"But I…"

"Yes, yes, I know you were the one who knocked out the kid, but he IS still ALIVE. Sheesh! Why don't you have more faith in your ability to control your strength?" Shalnark exclaimed furiously.

His patience was really getting thin, and that itself was not an everyday occurrence. Shalnark was known for his patience, after all; like how he demonstrated it when he dealt with Uvogin before the giant's death. However, even the most patient person on Earth could not stretch his/her patience to handle Phink's incessant once-every-five-minutes queries of "How is he doing?" and "Is he still alive?"

"You know I'm very bad in calculating!" Phinks retorted.

"Right… And you call yourself a Spider…" said a new voice from behind the door.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Phinks said in indignation as he flung the door open to reveal a certain samurai with his arms folded across his chest.

"How's Machi?" Shalnark ignored Phinks as he addressed Nobunaga.

"Well enough to give all of you a good beating." An icy voice answered.

Nobunaga and Phinks gave a yelp of surprise and they hastily made way for their 'Ice Queen'.

"We couldn't help it, y'know!" Phinks began on his defence. "We had to do something back then!"

"Y—yeah! What's your problem with going against Danchou's direct or—"

"Shut up." Machi growled dangerously, and the other men complied in less than a heartbeat. Machi stared at the slumbering Meta, and then to Shalnark. He was staring at her curiously.

"What happened?"

Machi knew that the sandy-brown young man was referring to the time when she had almost taken Meta out of their hideout to go after their Danchou. She did not answer straight away because she really had no firm idea on what had happened back then.

"Did he brainwash you?" Phinks offered. He had ruled out 'persuasion' because he knew darn well that Machi was not someone so easy to persuade once she was set about to do something—especially when it was an order from Kuroro Lucifer.

Machi shook her head slowly. "No. It's different. Almost like it but essentially different."

"What's the difference?" Nobunaga asked, curious as well.

The blue-haired young woman bit her lower lip. She did not know how to put it into the right words.

"Why don't you try describing it?" Shalnark said with smooth tone.

Never nodding or shaking her head, Machi turned her gaze back to the small doppelganger of Kurapika Kuruta. She tried recalling the event when Meta had succeeded in coaxing her in helping him out.

"His thoughts…" Machi started slowly, and continued after a short pause, "…feelings and emotions; they flooded into me. I could feel them, almost physically. It seemed as if he had projected his emotions into me..."

"And that's why you agreed to take him out of this place?" Nobunaga's tone was that of incredulity. "And to think that I've been in the opinion that you have a will of steel!"

Machi shot him a dirty look.

"Wait until he does that to _you_." She practically spat the word out of her mouth.

Shalnark turned to study Meta. The boy looked so innocent, angelic and harmless when he was sleeping. Who would have guessed that the little boy was perfectly capable of keeping the Spiders, of all people, on their toes with all his antics? Shalnark scratched his chin with one finger. There was one thing that he still could not understand.

"Was that his Nen power?" He finally voiced out his confusion.

The other three looked at him with raised eyebrows, before they glanced at each other. They had not sensed a surge of Nen or anything from the boy. The quality of his Nen had remained the same; it was still the characteristic feeling of dormant Nen residing in a person's body. The boy still had not had his Nen awakened yet. If that was the case, then what was with that 'brainwashing' ability?

"It's not." Machi finally declared.

"Is that your unerring intuition talking?" Nobunaga gave her a sideways glance.

No response from her.

"Thought so…" The samurai only shrugged, knowing the answer without getting it directly from the person in question. "So what are we to do about this little brat?"

"Look after him? That's what our order is, right?" Shalnark said lightly as he turned back to his laptop and began tapping his fingers mechanically and deftly against the keyboards.

Phinks involuntarily shuddered upon hearing the words 'look after him'. He could not help but to remember the brief event that took place the moment Danchou had reappeared in the Headquarter with his woman in tow.

xXx

"Let him sleep. We need to talk."

Those words were spoken with so much authority and decisiveness that nobody could possibly go against them. Well, except for Kurapika Kuruta it seemed, though it required tremendous effort on her part to refuse him.

"No. I need to check on him first." She stated with forced firmness.

"The others have been looking after him. There is absolutely no need for that." Kuroro said with flat voice.

"_Precisely_ because it's your Spiders who've been looking after him that I'm worried." She hissed belligerently.

Kuroro narrowed his eyes in displeasure, but knowing Kurapika—if she was still the same Kurapika he had known after five years of absence—he knew that she would not budge from her decision. He had the feeling that this time her stubbornness was even worse than what he had ever encountered before, considering that it concerned Meta.

"Show her." He curtly told his Spiders.

Without wasting another second, Phinks and Nobunaga made a beeline towards the room where Meta and Shalnark were. Kurapika followed after them, not bothering to wait for Kuroro. The said man simply sauntered behind her towards the room. Phinks had slipped into the room, undoubtedly to warn Shalnark of the coming 'original' (they had often dubbed Meta as the 'copy' or the 'doppelganger' of Kurapika). By the time Kurapika entered the room in the most regal fashion, Shalnark was already up in his feet, looking somewhat nervous and surprised.

"Uh… Hi?" The youthful Spider gave a nervous smile—which looked more like a twitch of the corner of his mouth.

Ignoring Shalnark completely, Kurapika was about to make her way to the bedside when Phinks stepped in between her and the bed. The blonde glared at him, giving him the "Move away" look yet the eyebrow-less made no indication of doing that anytime soon. Kurapika opened her mouth to yell at him, but before she could do that, a strong arm grabbed her arm.

"As you have seen, he is perfectly alright. Shall we go?"

Despite his choice of words that resembled an invitation, what he did was unlike his words. He practically dragged (the protesting) Kurapika out of the room, but before he closed the door behind him, he shot Phinks an "An explanation is in order later" look.

xXx

"Danchou really saved my life back then." Phinks heaved a relieved sigh upon recalling that memory.

"Hopeless bum..." Machi muttered under her breath as she went over to Meta and rolled him to his side almost gently.

Once the still sleeping Meta was lying on his side, Machi could get a good look at the inflammation at the base of the boy's neck. It was obviously the work of Phinks. Machi shot him a death glare.

"Couldn't help it! The boy just wouldn't stand still and listen!" Phinks cried out in defence again.

"He's right. Let him off this time." Nobunaga said in support of his colleague.

Machi only snorted. "You are lucky Danchou noticed this before she did. Otherwise, it's hell to you."

"Don't worry about that." Nobunaga grinned evilly. "He'll still get hell from Danchou later."

* * *

A young man was walking briskly, his face contorted into an expression of unreserved disgust. His nose wrinkled deeply, showing clearly that he was supremely bothered about his sense of smell—or rather, something that overwhelmed his sharp sense of smell.

"Oh! _Pentru dragostea lui Dumnezeu!_ (For the love of God) Terrible! Terrible!" He cursed incessantly as he stomped his way across the grove that surrounded the Yorskhin Central Hospital.

"What's your damn problem? First you dragged me rudely, and now you are cursing like there's no tomorrow while _still_ dragging me!"

She was correct. Lucian still had his cold hand wrapped around Yorn's smaller yet sturdy wrist, and he was practically dragging her along with him. Ignoring Yorn's complaints and her earlier yells of "Where the hell are you taking me?" and "Kidnapper!", Lucian pressed on with the ultimate question that had been bugging him:

"Girl, for God's sake, what the deuce did you put on those arrows? The smell is horrendous!"

Yorn frowned, and she then began sniffing at her quiver strapped across her back and the arrows stored inside. Her frown deepened as she detected no apparent smell at all.

"I don't smell anything."

Lucian rolled his eyes tiredly. He did not feel like explaining that vampires had extraordinary sense of smell. Besides, if he was to tell her that, he had the feeling that she would start calling him Dog Nose or something along that line.

"Just tell me what the ingredients you use for that poison. Sheesh…" He cringed openly as Yorn moved towards him by one step. "I can't stand the stench. It's so nasty."

"Then stop breathing if you can't stand it!" She snapped at him, feeling offended by his obvious expression of distaste towards the arrows that _she_ carried. It made her feel as if she was the smelly one. Nevertheless, she answered his question: "The main ingredients are monkhood and diamphotoxin."

_And other special stuffs…_She muttered in her heart, but she was not going to disclose that information any time soon to anyone because those 'special stuffs' were rare ingredients that worked to penetrate Nen defence. Those 'special stuffs' were the fruits of relentless hours of researches and experiments by her and Lazmorgh. Both had sworn to keep the secret to their graves, if needed be.

Lucian's eyes widened exponentially. He stopped walking and turned around to stare at her disbelievingly.

"Monkshood as in wolfsbane? And diamphotoxin? _Nu e de mirare duhoarea urât ... _(no wonder the nasty stench) I should have guessed…" Lucian grumbled.

Yes, of course he knew those ingredients. Monkshood, or wolfsbane, was a deadly plant from tip to toe. The aconitine toxin; a potent neurotoxin, of the plant could be absorbed through skin and not necessarily via oral consumption. In this event, there would be no gastrointestinal effects that were common of poisoning cases. In severe poisonings, motor weakness might occur with tingling sensation and unpleasant numbness spreading from the arm to the shoulder, after which the heart and respiratory centre would be affected.

That explained why Kurapika could get poisoned from a mere cut inflicted by the poison-treated arrow, and that explained the paralysis of her limbs and the 'shutting down' sensation she had experienced. She had been lucky that she was given the antidote before her heart and respiratory centre were damaged.

Diamphotoxin, on the other hand, was a toxin extracted from the larvae and pupae of a beetle called Diamphidia. It could cause an increased permeability of cell walls which disrupted normal cellular ionic levels in human body. Combined with monkshood, it made a deadly combination of poison as it paved an easy access for the aconitine toxin to enter the body.

"You know them?" Yorn actually sounded surprise.

"Don't take me as a fool, girl. I am a renowned apothecary in my region." Lucian snorted in indignation at being belittled by the (several decades or hundred years) younger girl.

Yorn raised an eyebrow and gave him a sceptical look. "Doesn't look like it."

Lucian clucked his tongue unhappily and began to walk again, again dragging her by the wrist.

"Not only are you a barbarian, but also you sure do have such foul mouth and downright rude attitude," he muttered.

"_Excuse me?_" She yelled at him, her face flushed from the embarrassment of being given such negative opinions about herself. Even Lazmorgh was not _that_ tactless, discourteous, impertinent, audacious…and the list went on.

In rage, Yorn tried to wrestle her arm free from Lucian's hand, but his iron grip would not budge no matter how violent she tried to shake his hand off hers. Flustered and exasperated, she began yelling at him again.

"Unhand me, you boor!"

"Look who's talking." Lucian snickered.

"YOU!" She screeched, and tried to plant her legs to the ground to stop him but her effort went futile. If anything, she left a trail of twin slight ploughed furrows in her wake as she still got dragged along by the vampire who obviously possessed superhuman strength. Yorn positively felt like she was making a fool out of herself.

"Keep quiet, girl. Don't you want to go home?"

"Of course I do!"

"Then just be a good girl and come along with me, will you? That old man has kindly provided you with free transportation all the way to your place, and now you are behaving so difficultly. Now who's the problematic one here?" Lucian complained while still keeping his gaze straight.

When both Lucian and Yorn had first reached the grove around the Yorkshin Central Hospital, they had been approached by Netero out of the blue. The old man claimed that he could feel their unique Nens from afar, and had decided to check them out. Upon seeing Yorn, Netero had been very excited and pleased. He straight away noticed her as a member of the endangered Unicorn Tribe.

The old man was about to launch into another briefing session with Yorn about the protection scheme for endangered tribes that the Hunter Association had in store, but Lucian had quickly interjected before it could go for miles.

"_We are here for Kurapika. Where is she?" _

That was how he had interjected—and it worked wonder. Once brief explanation was given to the chairman, arrangements had been made quickly and efficiently to get Kurapika out of the hospital and brought her to their place. Yorn could not possibly enter the hospital premise without getting noticed. She stood out far too obviously.

And that was how Kurapika ended up waking up on the grass and under the canopy of the trees.

Lucian frowned ever so slightly. He did not like that old man; the vampire found Netero too suspicious, like he was planning something behind their backs. He could also discern the old man's knack for unpredictability from the way he 'behaved'. Somehow, Lucian had the feeling that he could not really get along with Chairman Netero of the Hunters Association.

It was even fishier when the old man had straight away gone off the moment Kurapika was in their care. It was as if he knew them enough to entrust Kurapika's 'revival' in their hands and to simply leave the process unobserved. Lucian could sense that Netero was the type who looked out for his subordinates, and that was why it was strange that he did not even bother to wait until Kurapika at least opened her eyes.

Not to mention that she was the 'precious last living pure-blooded Kuruta' on Earth under the protection of the Hunters Association.

"Suspicious…Definitely suspicious…" He mumbled to himself as at distance he could see the blimp that carried the logo of the organization.

* * *

"Your hair colour is faintly duller than before."

The moment they entered their room, each of them took their own respective spots in the room. Kuroro occupied one of the lavish chair provided, while Kurapika took her post facing the ceiling-tall glass wall that overlooked the metropolitan city. She had been standing like a sentry, scanning the busy city with her oceanic blue eyes while trying to sort out her jumbled up thoughts. Then, out of the blue, came that strange statement from Kuroro's mouth—and the words had come out so smoothly that it almost startled her.

The statement had come without warning whatsoever that it caught Kurapika completely off-guard. She stared at him with an expression of incredulity clear on her face. Such a random remark!

"Thank you for stating it, unnecessary as it may be." She retorted without further thought; the response came almost naturally.

"And still the horrible fashion sense." He chuckled pleasantly.

Kurapika scowled at him, but she soon realised that they were falling into their old dynamics. She wondered vaguely if it was because of that random remark that Kuroro had thrown to her—random statements were Kuroro's daily routine during their two years journey. They were like his "Soup of the Day"; in which the content depended solely on his moods and thoughts.

A sense of ease crept into her heart, but she tried to ignore it for some reasons. She did not want to get too comfortable with him again because she knew that there were issues that they had to set straight. Again, she told herself that she did not want her feelings and emotions to get in the way.

However, she could not deny the tiny fact that she did miss that old dynamics.

"What have you been doing?" He continued asking. Somehow, he had the feelings that he had to keep asking questions to get her to talk.

For a moment, her breath was caught on her throat, before she answered slowly, "Finding tribes that are on the brink of extinction, and helping them to recover."

Kuroro raised an eyebrow.

"Not surprising." He finally decided. "But how do you do it? Aren't you supposed to be a 'dead' person?"

Kurapika snorted at his statement. Yes, five years ago he had once again faked her death to help her escape the lifetime humiliation of being traded as an auction item. However, that 'dead' status had changed soon enough.

"Netero knows everything. He offers to forge a fake ID for me, so that I can live a normal life without fearing that somebody may hunt me down for my heritage anymore."

"That is very charitable of him," said Kuroro, but his voice was tinged with a certain degree of dubiousness. Much like Lucian, Kuroro was very wary of the leader of Hunters.

Kurapika caught that tone, and she understood it.

"He considers me as a national treasure." She explained to him. "It's just part of his personal endeavour of satisfying his desire cum duty as a Hunter. He simply wants to preserve the rare bloodline of Kuruta."

There was no emotion whatsoever that accompanied those words. It was as if she was simply regurgitating facts from some textbooks, full-stop.

"Figures so…" Kuroro muttered quietly.

As the topic ended there, another awkward silence ensued. A few seconds that seemed to stretch for eternity engulfed the entire room.

"About the ring—"

The incomplete sentence was, interestingly enough, spoken in unison by the two of them with perfect timing. And as per usual, both of them stopped abruptly with intention to let the other continued with their speech. In the end, another hefty and even more awkward silence ensued. Finally, it was broken by Kuroro's soft words.

"Ladies first," he said while gesturing at Kurapika to continue with whatever she wanted to say.

Normally, most females would have swooned or blushed upon being treated in such gentlemanly manner. However, Kurapika definitely did not count in that 'most' category. Wearing a mild scowl on her face, she spoke her mind:

"The Solomon Ring. What's your real reason for leaving it in my care?"

As she said these words, she gave Kuroro a hard, piercing look. It was the kind of look that said "you'd better tell me the whole truth." Kuroro raised one amused eyebrow at Kurapika's inquiry. Her question had almost hit home, if only her wordings had been correct. A faint smile crept to his lips. Noticing this thin smile that she immediately recognised as his characteristic smug smirk, Kurapika rephrased her question.

"Or should I say, ALL of your reasons? I know you weren't telling me the whole truth." By this, Kurapika was referring to the parting letter that he had left behind five years ago:

_You will need its more protection more than I do, since you are such a magnet for troubles. I'm lending it to you._

The letter implied that he was lending the ring to her for her protection, and she caught on with that. However, she knew that things were not quite right with that…

"You do not simply lend me the ring just because of its innate protective attribute, considering that it is Ishtar's last memento for you."

At the mention of the late Lady of Ryuusei-gai, something flickered in the furthest depth of Kuroro's obsidian eyes and miraculously Kurapika had not missed it. Despite her curiosity, Kurapika tried to ignore it and went on with her 'hypotheses'.

"There has to be something else. A catch, perhaps?"

Suddenly, just as Kurapika barely finished her sentence, Kuroro let out an open pleasant laughter. It took the blonde by surprise as it had not escaped her notice that his laughter sounded like a relieved one. She remembered that kind of laugh. He had once laughed like that in front of her. It was the time back then in the eastern continent, when Kuroro's theory of Nen-transfer had been proven correct through demonstration cum experimentation between the two of them. It was a laugh of pure happiness and almost childish joy.

And it was contagious. Soon enough, despite her confusion, Kurapika found herself much more relaxed than before. It was as if listening to his open laughter had lifted a great tension off her being—both physical and mental.

"What's so funny?" She demanded, or tried to, as her voice lost all harshness and hostility.

When Kuroro was quite done with his laughter, he looked at her with bright expression etched on his handsome visage. A smile still tugged on his lips, and even his normally dark and distant eyes seemed to laugh along albeit ever so slightly.

"Very well done, Kurapika." He said with sincere tone in his voice.

"What is?" She asked with slight frown. Sometimes, she still did not get the man's way of thinking.

"Your deduction." He replied while straightening up.

Yes, the reason of his laugh was none of other because he was pleased to find Kurapika still the sharp-minded, quick-thinking person he knew. He took comfort in that, convinced that not many things between them might have changed so much after all, despite the five long years of separation—despite the undeniable fact that they were still keeping an awkward physical distance right then, even when they were the only occupants of the room. It was as if they were still unwilling to step into each other's zone YET.

"There is another reason for me lending you the ring," he continued.

Kurapika narrowed her eyes, not entirely pleased with the fact that he had not been entirely honest with him. Then again, he was not under obligation to tell her everything that concerned his decision, was he?

"Which is?" She asked with wary tone.

"You are well aware that the ring contains 72 demons, are you not?"

"…Yes." She responded with unsure voice.

"And you are aware that I have been chosen as its master."

Kurapika nodded and muttered, "And in effect you are those demons' master."

"Correct." He gave a nod of confirmation. "In that consideration, won't it be natural for me to be able to communicate with those demons, and in return, for those demons to communicate with me?"

A light of recognition seemed to shine from Kurapika's oceanic blue eyes. Her expression was the tell-tale sign of the acknowledgement and recollection of a long forgotten memory of knowledge that she had learned long time ago.

"The Dark Whispers…" She muttered in voice that seemed akin to that of a person who had just discovered something so hideous and monstrous.

The Dark Whispers was a term used mainly among the practitioners of black arts. It referred literally to the dark thoughts and persuasions that demons whispered to the hearts and minds of Man, especially those who were engaged in dark arts and the likes.

Kurapika had had her share of studying that area, not because she was interested in practicing black arts. It was part of her study when she was set on devoting her Hunter life to help those tribes that were dwindling from existence. She had to know of their cultures and everything in order for her to approach them and befriend them. Kurapika was a prudent person by nature and nurture—a lesson she learned through apprenticeship back then in Rukuso Village and through her life experience—and so she wanted to make sure she knew everything so she would not step on a landmine as she did her job. She was well aware that most tribes who were on the brink of extinction were tribes that were very tightly wrapped in their own traditions—which involved strange magic and rituals, including black magic.

That was not the real reason behind her study on black arts, though. The Solomon Ring itself was one of the main drives of her study, but she was not about to tell Kuroro that.

Kuroro felt strangely pleased when he noted how Kurapika responded so well with the information, and how she seemed to know of something in relation to the Solomon Ring. This was one of the many attributes of her that he was so fond of; her intellect and vast knowledge.

"Since you know of the Dark Whispers, you should know of the risks I bear for simply being the master of the Solomon Ring."

"What do they whisper to you?" Kurapika asked curiously. She had never really had the chance of knowing the 'content' of the Dark Whispers, since most of those black arts practitioners had either lost their lives to those demons, or they had lost their sanity to even answer her properly.

Kuroro only shrugged.

"The usual. That I could take over the world if I were to utilise their powers to the fullest. That I could do great deeds with their aids. It's the same old things, as what legends say."

"How boring." Kurapika gave a slightly disappointed snort.

"It is."

Kurapika stared at Kuroro's face, searching for an answer as she asked again:

"So the other reason of you leaving behind the ring is because of the Dark Whispers?"

Kuroro cocked his head to one side.

"You can say so."

Kurapika narrowed her eyes in concealed suspicion. It was not like Kuroro to turn tail just because some demons were bugging him with their nonsense. Well, demons were big deal, alright, but still… It was strange to know that Kuroro Lucifer was trying to run away from those demons—running away was not in his characters, she knew that by close observation and first-hand experience. Had he still not told her the whole truth yet, or had she missed some critical points there?

"You are afraid of them?" She asked, hoping for a confirmation or some sort.

Kuroro straightened up his head and gave her a measuring glance. There was a hint of hesitation in those obsidian eyes, as if he was contemplating whether to even answer her simple question or not. Finally, after quite a while, he decided to answer.

"It isn't them that I'm afraid of."

Kurapika blinked once. Not the demons or the Dark Whispers? Then what?

The Spider Head could clearly see the "Then what is it that you are afraid of?" question written in the most painfully obvious fashion all over Kurapika's face. This was where his reluctance was the greatest—he had no desire of letting Kurapika know that _she _might become the cause of him giving in to the Dark Whispers if he would ever do so. He still remembered the time during the Mammon Incident back then; the memory was still fresh in his head as if it had just occurred the day before. That time, he had almost given in to the demons of the Solomon Ring.

Kurapika, on the other hand, was actually still busy getting all surprised by the fact that Kuroro Lucifer even remotely admitted that he was _afraid_ of something. She had expected him to deny it, but to hear that kind of blatantly honest response, it was completely beyond her imagination. When she had finally come to terms with that surprise, she was about to ask him the exact question that he 'dreaded' ("Then what it is that you are afraid of?"), when her brains decided to ring a warning alert.

_The Solomon Ring hosts 72 demons who are capable of communication with those who are compatible with them…_ she recalled. Her heart suddenly began to race for some reasons.

Then, without any warnings, Kurapika let out a sharp gasp, making Kuroro looked up in slight alert. He could easily detect the thick horror in her gasp. Her face was as white as a paper as if not a single tiny drop of blood was left in the veins underneath her facial skin. Kurapika staggered one step behind, a look of profound terror in her visage as a devastating realization dawned to her.

"Meta…" She whispered in a ghastly voice.

_How can I not notice this?_ She berated herself in the most scalding tone she could muster in her heart. _How could I…To think that I have known that for so long…_

"What of him?" Kuroro asked with calm voice, despite the slight frown he wore. What kind of relationship did the boy have with the ring; aside from the fact that the boy wore it as a necklace, which had made Kurapika terrified so?

"He has empathic ability…" Kurapika responded with grim voice, not really answering his question the way he had expected.

_Ah…_Kuroro's face was clearly that of a person who had just found the solution to his problem. Now he knew why the boy behaved the way he was—the reason why a four-years-old boy like him could know and understand many things beyond what a normal four-years-old would know, and why he seemed to be much more mature than children his age. However so, he failed to comprehend the reason of Kurapika being so terrified over the fact that the boy had empathic ability in relation to the Solomon Ring and its demons.

The gears of his brains virtually clanking in top speed, Kuroro managed to come up with a very plausible reason for Kurapika's trepidation. He then wore a similar look of horror, though on a very much milder and subtler degree than Kurapika.

"Don't tell me…" He started despite himself.

_No, I don't know about it. I don't know._ Kurapika told herself repeatedly while at the same time crossing her fingers. Staring at the carpet beneath her legs was all she was capable of at that moment.

"…he can hear their whispers?"

Kurapika gnawed the inside of her mouth. She could only utter one prayer silently:

_I hope not._

_

* * *

_

Shalnark was in panic.

He had only gone out of the room for a fleeting minutes for some private call with Fino (he would rather not have a phone call with Meta around, in case the boy woke up and decided to torture him to death with his incessant questions about the call), but when he got back to the room where Meta was _supposedly_ sleeping, he found the boy missing.

_Not again, not again. Please, dear Lord, make that boy stay in the compound!_ Shalnark prayed in his heart while searching the entire building hastily.

His anxiety quickly died down as he finally managed to locate the boy through his faint raw Nen that was emitted unsteadily. Shalnark turned around a corner and was greeted by an unusual scene—or rather, a disturbing one. Or eerie, perhaps. Not that he could help it. What would anyone with sound and _normal _mind think or feel when they saw a little pretty boy; who looked all angelic and adorable, sitting in front of a crude, make-shift grave with only misshapen candles as the tombstone?

Here he was, standing speechless in the dark recess of the room, looking at the boy whose face was tinted pale crimson from the dim illumination of a single lit candle. Meta was sitting down on the floor, uncaring of the dirt, his head tilted slightly upwards to give the impression that he was not paying attention to the grave or the candle. Shalnark could catch the boy's faint voice. He was engaged in his monologue again, it seemed.

Just as Shalnark approached the boy quietly, it occurred to him that Meta's monologue was not the usual monologue that he often did.

"So you were killed by Mom?" The boy's voice was dark and unhappy.

Shalnark's face turned pale.

"You like Dad a lot, don't you? You even died for his sake…" Meta's voice turned husky, but the gloom in his voice was unmistakably thick—like he was still shaken over something.

The young sandy-brown haired Spider felt suffocated by his own heart that had seemed to leap up from his chest to his throat, blocking the air supply from his lungs. At the same time, his stomach churned uneasily. He had a good guess on what character Meta was speaking to—or rather, speaking _with_.

_Paku…_

_

* * *

_

_**Author's Note:**__ I know it's a lot of talks and conversations. Is it too boring? I guess some of your are dozing off halfway the chapter =P Come to think of it, when I was typing this chapter down, I realised that there are so many explanations to be given. You all most welcome to help remind me of what explanations you all want to know. I'm afraid of getting out of tracks and touch with the fic as a whole because of my university assignments -_-_

_Oh, by the by, Kuroro's remark of "You hair is duller than before" is actually inspired from this fact I read from a book. It's said that when blondes give birth, their hair colour really grow duller than before because some of her hormones or whatever-it-is which function is to maintain the colour of the hair are drained from the body. _

_And the thing about Meta being able to hear the Solomon Ring demons, here's a piece of advice: DON'T JUMP INTO CONCLUSION. Interpret this as you wish hehehehe ^^_

_The title was 'Reconnecting' because after five years of separation, I think it's just normal for them to be all awkward and not at ease with each other. In that consideration, they should need to reconnect in order to fall into the old rhythm and dynamics._

_**Next:**__ Both Kuroro and Kurapika had a ill suspicion of Meta being able to hear the voices of the demons of the Solomon Ring. However, was that really the case? Also, who would have guessed that Meta was capable of communicating with the spirits of the deceased as well? And of all people, the first 'ghost' he encountered was that of Pakunoda—the woman who gave up his life for his father and at the same time killed by his mother. How would the four-years-old boy take it?_


	8. Chapter 6: Abnormality

_**Disclaimer: **__HunterxHunter is not mine yet._

_**Story so far:**__ Kuroro and Kurapika found themselves sharing another common issue: the fear that Meta might be able to hear the voices of the demons of Solomon Ring. Was their anxiety unfounded, or was it substantiated? In the meantime, Shalnark discovered another preternatural evidence of Meta's abnormality—his ability to communicate with ghosts. Meta was speaking with the ghost of Pakunoda; but did it bear good omen or ill wind?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 6**

_**ABNORMALITY**_

_**

* * *

**_

Shalnark was in a dilemma. Not that this was his first to be in predicament, but this occasion was much more delicate than the ones he had ever encountered. He swung forth and back on his heels as the pivot, unsure on whether he had to interrupt Meta's conversation or not.

Paku's spirit still lingered in the world! Shalnark was completely sure that Kuroro would be extremely thrilled to know that—after all, the man believed in the existence of spirit and this discovery would prove his belief as correct. However, the combination of Meta and Paku's spirit did not seem to be a promising one—at least in his opinion.

After battling with his inner self for quite some time—he had the suspicion that he might have looked utterly idiotic as he was trying to come with a decision—Shalnark straightened up his body and took one decisive step.

"Meta."

His voice was surprisingly very loud; it echoed faintly within the confinement of the relatively spacious room. The boy's reaction had been slow; he only turned to look at Shalnark after a few seconds. Meta had a faraway look on his face, and there was a dark shade that seemed to hang around his visage. It made Shalnark uneasy to see the boy's gloomy expression. Knowing the boy since he was an infant, Shalnark was used to Meta's buoyant and jovial attitude—never before had he seen the boy in such a depressed state, not even when he was being severely reprimanded by Kurapika.

"Shalnark…" Meta's voice came like a weak breeze.

Summoning his cheerful countenance, hoping that it would rub off on the boy—children were easily influenced by the people around them—Shalnark approached him and ruffled his golden hair playfully. Much unlike Kurapika, Meta actually loved getting his hair ruffled. This time, disturbingly again, the boy showed no reaction to this gesture.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked the boy with soft voice, not forgetting a bright smile plastered on his youthful face.

Meta did respond to Shalnark's question, but it was not an answer to his question.

"Shalnark…" Meta muttered in low, sad voice. "She asked: how's Danchou?"

Despite knowing that he was referring to Paku's ghost, Shalnark responded with his most innocent voice:

"Who is 'she'?"

"She said her name was Pakunoda."

Hearing it directly from Meta, Shalnark could not help but to feel a tinge of regret for Paku's death years ago. Biting the inside of his cheek mildly so that he could maintain the carefree expression, Shalnark gave him yet another smile.

"Can you help me talk to her, Meta?"

"I don't know…" The boy shook his head lightly, his golden strands of hair swaying gently like silk curtain.

"Can you try?" Shalnark asked with hopeful tone.

The boy cocked his head to one side, as if listening to another voice intently. After a few seconds that seemed like forever for Shalnark, the boy muttered softly:

"I'll try."

With that, Meta reached out for Shalnark's hand. Shalnark let the boy held his much bigger hand—he could feel the sadness flowing from the boy's palm into him. Somehow, now he understood what Machi had meant with 'the boy's emotions being transferred'. Meta then turned and focused his gaze to a certain spot in the empty air.

Then, for the first time in his four years of knowing Metatron Kuruta (no, Shalnark did not know of Meta's true full name), Shalnark experienced the boy's uncanny ability. Precisely like how Machi had described it, he could feel warm tendrils of emotions creeping into him, penetrating through his skin and his cells, transcending into his psyche. Like a man that had just attained enlightenment from Buddha, Shalnark widened his eyes in amazement as his view of the world before him changed.

The surrounding was still the same dingy room of the dilapidated building, but standing—or rather, floating—before him was the translucent figure of a woman he had known, and still knew, very much despite the years that had passed since her death. Her outfit was still the smart suit with no blouse whatsoever underneath it and (outrageously) short skirt; all black in colour though they all seemed transparent due to her being a spirit. Her facial feature still had not changed at all, except the fact that her eyes looked rather different. They looked just like how ghosts' eyes would look like—haunted and restless.

_Shalnark,_ Pakunoda's spirit greeted him with a whispery voice. The quality of her ghostly voice prickled his skin, making him shiver but he tried not to show it.

"Paku." Shalnark greeted her back, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. "How are you doing?"

A stupid question, really. Pakunoda's spirit only shrugged uncaringly.

_As good as any ghosts can be, I suppose._ She answered offhandedly, completely unbothered by the fact that she was just a ghost—the bodiless remnant of her former self.

Despite himself, Shalnark laughed. He then turned to Meta and scooped him in his arms. Meta did not protest at all. If anything, when he was secure in Shalnark's arms, he buried his face to the Spider's chest and remained that way. It was as if he had no wish to listen to their conversation—which was a favour for Shalnark. The youthful Spider turned to Pakunoda and saw her staring at the boy with interested eyes.

"Do you know who he is?"

_I know._ She simply answered without taking her eyes off the blond boy.

"Aren't you surprised?" Shalnark asked curiously.

_The good thing about being a ghost is that nothing can surprise you anymore,_ Pakunoda said while letting out a ghastly chuckle. _But how is Danchou responding to this, really? I have a feeling that Danchou hasn't expected this to happen._

Shalnark gave a small apologetic smile.

"I'd love to tell you about it, but…" He glanced at the little boy whom he was cradling in his arms.

Pakunoda nodded silently, indicating that she understood what he meant. Both of them had no desire to talk about the past of the boy's parents when the boy was present. Their pasts were not sweet, if one was to say. Far from it; the closest to describe it was bloody and ironic. One thing for sure, it was not something that a four-years-old like Meta should listen to.

Shalnark had a torn look on his face; he wanted to tell everything to Pakunoda, but with Meta around he could not possibly do that. Sensing Shalnark's restlessness about that issue, Paku gave a reassuring smile.

_It's alright. I will find out soon…_ Pakunoda said, her voice trailing away as she looked up and stared to a space above Shalnark's head with a dreamy look that only a ghost could muster.

Unbeknownst to Shalnark, floating like a thin mist just above him was another otherworldly entity that had passed the door of Death. Being a spirit herself, Pakunoda acknowledge that entity straight away that it belonged to another whole different league than her—it was a ghost of a being that had been of a higher office than humans were when it was still alive. She especially recognised the ghost—no, spirit would be a more fitting term—since she had hailed from Ryuusei-gai, and since she had been one of those children chosen to be elite-force from Ryuusei-gai before Kuroro 'rescued' them.

"Is that another advantage of being a ghost?" Shalnark asked innocently and good-naturedly.

_Presently, you can say so._ Pakunoda answered vaguely; not the least bit offended, while her eyes were still trained to the entity hovering above Shalnark—or more accurately, around Meta. Silence passed between them for a moment, before Shalnark asked again; this time with quiet voice that sounded almost sorrowful.

"Why do you stay here, Paku?"

That question might sound vague for most people, but Pakunoda understood crystal-clear on what the young man was referring to. Translated, his question would be: "Why have you not departed from this material world and instead remains as a ghost?" The ghost woman pondered over it. She had not really thought of it much, her spirit only knowing that there was something that she had to make sure before her soul could rest in peace and ascended to the afterlife—if there was any.

By this time, Meta had fallen asleep in Shalnark's arms. It would seem like the boy was bored out of his mind from such talks, but Shalnark knew better than that. He knew that the boy was inquisitive; painfully so as he knew by experience that the boy could really prod people with his endless questions about just everything. At times, he would even try to hide away from the boy when the boy was in the verge of asking a question. Once the question was fired off, there was almost no end to it. In conclusion, the reason why Meta had fallen asleep was not because he was bored.

That was more because the four-years-old had no wish to listen to the conversation. Whenever the boy was distraught or distressed by anything, he could just sleep anytime and anywhere. It was a peculiar trait that he had not inherited from any of his parents; as Shalnark had vaguely thought once.

Before Pakunoda could answer to Shalnark's question, his phone rang. Glancing fleetingly at the caller ID (he was contemplating shutting off the phone if it was someone unimportant) and seeing that it was his Danchou calling, Shalnark answered it without the slightest hesitation.

"Yes, Danchou? Anything I can help?" He asked cheerily, but he kept his volume down so as not to wake the boy up. Shalnark wondered vaguely if Kuroro would notice this or not.

_[I presume Meta is still with you?]_

Ah, he not then. As expected of his Danchou.

"Yeah. Still sleeping." He muttered while adjusting the boy's position in his arm to a more comfortable one so that he could hold the conversation more comfortably.

_[Good. Bring him to Altair Hotel, floor 108 suite 4. Immediately, Shalnark.]_

Though there was no sense of emergency in his tone, Shalnark could decipher from the words he used that something urgent had come up and it concerned the sleeping boy in his arms.

"Okay. I'm going now." Shalnark quickly responded.

_[Good. We will be waiting.]_

And he hung up.

With the phone still raised next to his ear, Shalnark frowned. We, he said? _Must be Kurapika,_ Shalnark answered to his own wonderment. _In that case, must be some parental issues…_

Looking up at Pakunoda, Shalnark was rewarded by a look of longing in the ghost's transparent visage. He felt slightly guilty for answering the phone there—after all, Pakunoda died for Kuroro's sake—but he could not help it, could he?

"Looks like I have to go now, Paku." Shalnark announced with small voice. The ghost gave one approving nod.

_Go. Don't make Danchou wait._ She stated with her characteristic flat tone.

Shalnark nodded once appreciatively at her and turned around. He had just taken three strides when Pakunoda's ghost called out to him. Stopping and turning his body to politely regard him, Shalnark gave her the kind "What is it?" look. The ghost wavered for a while, as indicated by how the ghastly figure literally flickered briefly like a candle blown by slight breeze.

_Please ask Danchou…_ she started, her thin insubstantial voice echoing in the dim room, _to come here with the boy._

Shalnark blinked once. After a second of brainwork, he understood her intention. She wanted to talk with Danchou for once more, with Meta as the connector just like how he had been between Shalnark and Pakunoda presently. Nodding at her once, with more reassurance for the spirit of his deceased comrade, Shalnark made his exit with Meta still slumbering in his arms.

* * *

It had not really made any difference, whether she waited until they were out of the vicinity or not—it was just out of her respect to the living; to her former Spider comrade—that Pakunoda waited until the pair had made their complete exit from the room. Then, she turned to regard the floating entity that lingered in the room.

She was surprised that the entity remained in the room at all. She had expected that it would stick close to the blond boy; as she thought that it had assumed a guardian role for the boy.

The entity with dark curly mass of hair and midnight hair approached her in one smooth sail across the dingy, poorly lit room. Pakunoda could tell that the spirit's piercing black eyes were studying her; both inside and out. She was impressed by how those eyes still retained their thick, abysmal darkness despite being a spirit at all.

_**Pakunoda, the one with memory-reading by physical touch Nen ability?**_ The spirit asked, not unkindly yet not too endearingly.

_I am._ Pakunoda answered dutifully. _And are you Ishtar, the Lady of Ryuusei-gai?_

Ishtar gave a pleasant low chuckle.

_**I was once her, but no more.**_There was no longing or remorse in her voice, as if she had no regret being dead and thus losing her former status at all. With a sweep of dismissive hand, Ishtar posed another question to Pakunoda.

_**That aside, answer me this, Pakunoda. What is it that ties you to this material world?**_

The same question that Shalnark asked, but it sounded so daunting when it came from Ishtar. Pakunoda looked down to the dirt on the filthy floor, while trying to rummage through whatever feelings, emotions, and memories that she could tap in from her spirit and soul. What was the reason?

_I think…_ She began, remembering her request to Shalnark before he went away, _that I want to see for myself that Danchou is really fine._

_**I see.**_Ishtar merely remarked and said or asked her regarding it any further—which she was thankful for. Prodded further, she would have no answer anymore that would satisfy the former Lady.

_What about you, Lady? What ties you to this world?_ Pakunoda asked her in return.

In response to that question, Ishtar descended to the floor and began pacing as if she could really walk on the concrete like the living. She then ran a hand along the dusty wall of the room; one which had the wall plaster peeling off here and there. Her expression was unreadable, as were her eyes. Pakunoda could not decipher her true nature, and her Nen ability was no longer hers now that she was only the bodiless remembrance of her former self.

_**I can never completely pass from this world, **_Ishtar finally answered, her voice was still devoid of any emotions._** My soul is condemned to walk the Earth until the end of time—if there ever is such thing. **_

Pakunoda could not really grasp the concept of what Ishtar was talking about. The moment she had found herself as a ghost, the knowledge that she could transcend into the afterlife when her 'unfinished issues' on Earth was done was already ingrained to her spirit. Deciding that it was something beyond her understanding, Pakunoda left the matter as it was and moved on with another question.

_Lady, why did you choose death?_ Pakunoda asked with revered tone.

Despite being a fellow spirit, Pakunoda still could sense the air of dignity around Ishtar. What more, she had always dreamed of meeting the elusive Lady of Ryuusei-gai in person, and this was her first time of ever coming face to face with her, albeit in death. The reason of her question also had been her belief that the Lady of Ryuusei-gai would not be someone who could die so easily—just like her Danchou was. They seemed to be impervious to Death itself.

Ishtar flashed Pakunoda a kind smile, and it took her slightly by surprise.

_**I was simply tired of the responsibility that being alive imposed on me. There are so many liabilities to attend to, so many things to consider. The good thing of being a spirit like this is that you have no responsibilities whatsoever to uphold, correct?**_

Pakunoda could understand that, so she nodded in silent agreement.

_**However…**_ Ishtar continued with slower voice, _**old habits die hard.**_Then she gave a low chuckle, and it sounded almost amused. _**Having responsibilities has become like a habit to me. In the end, ironically I found myself imposing a responsibility to myself.**_

_The boy?_ Pakunoda asked, with her eyes directed to the door where Shalnark and Meta had exited to.

_**He is such a sweet little thing,**_Ishtar said with a purr, like a mother who was admiring her baby so much.

_He was devastated,_ Pakunoda said with slight guilty in her tone, _when he found out that her mother is a murderer._

_**It is inevitable, but he must learn to deal with it,**_ Ishtar stated firmly. _**After all, truth is truth no matter how much you try to alter it.**_

_**

* * *

**_

That was the very same quote that Kuroro Lucifer had spoken before, directed at Kurapika years back. It was the first and foremost lesson that he had learned in the earliest days since he was taken in by her—and had been ingrained in him since then.

Kuroro pocketed his phone and looked at Kurapika. She looked as if the world was coming to an end and that the sky was crumbling upon her. All those because of the wild speculation that Meta might be able to hear the Dark Whispers of the demons of the Solomon Ring—which had yet to be proven.

"You gave the ring to Meta." He stated as-a-matter-of-factly, trying to distract her from her despondency that could seem to be the death of her.

Kurapika only gave a mirthless, shaky and nervous laugh. She fell silence, but Kuroro could sense that she was going to say something soon.

"I just feel…" She mumbled, but it was audible enough to Kuroro. "…that that is the most appropriate thing to do…"

While saying that, she stared at the onyx-silver ring that she was stubbornly wearing on her ring finger. That ring was, in a matter of saying, the evidence and mark of her hypocrisy. She would always put up a hostile attitude when things concerning him was brought up, but at the same time she would tell everyone—or to be exact, those idiots who were trying to ask her out—that she was already married. When Meta was born, he became her excuse of turning those idiotic excuses of men down but when asked who the father was, she would not answer—or rather, could not answer. Despite all these, the sole and most important reason why she had not thrown away that ring was because of the sentimental value that the ring carried, regardless how much she tried to deny it, and not its efficiency of being men-repellent.

As such, she felt that it would only be fair that Meta was given the Solomon Ring. Despite her reluctance to tell the boy too much of his father, she felt that it was an obligation of her, as a mother, to at least give the boy something related to his father. The Solomon Ring was more than appropriate to fulfil that duty. She had no other objects that could directly relate to Kuroro Lucifer, anyway.

However, speaking of the Solomon Ring, Kurapika remembered yet another question that had bugged her before. Looking up to meet Kuroro's intense stare at her, she let the question rolled off her tongue rather contemplatively.

"You could have asked Lucian to keep the ring for you. Why me?"

Kuroro raised a quizzical eyebrow, but answered her question fast enough nonetheless.

"A good point, considering it's true that Lucian have more general ideas on what kind of item the Solomon Ring is. However, he does not need its protection. The sky can fall on his head and he still won't die—" he paused, and added with a smirk, "like a cockroach."

Kurapika could not help but to snort in gleeful amusement at Kuroro's last remark about Lucian. It was more than appropriate to dub Lucian as a cockroach, as she had witnessed so many times how the vampire always managed to slither his way out of harms way, barely or not. Nevertheless, she was bothered with one implication from Kuroro's seemingly impeccable explanation.

"'Need its protection'? So you are saying that I'm so weak that I will need the ring's protection?" Kurapika's eyebrows knitted into unhappy frowns.

The corner of his mouth _almost_ twitched when he heard this. If only Kurapika knew that he had assigned an Ifrit to be her 'guardian angel'.

"No. You are strong, Kurapika. I will vouch for that." He said, deciding to omit the Deifri part. "But consider this: Lucian is immortal, no argument in that. You, however, are not. Why waste the ring's innate protective shield on an immortal such as Lucian?"

Kurapika's frown softened.

"Points taken..." She nodded in confirmation.

Unbeknownst to Kurapika, Kuroro had actually not spoken all truth. Frankly speaking, he simply felt more assured if he knew that Kurapika had a strong protection of the ring. He could not care less about Lucian's safety. Like he said before, as long as Lucian stayed cockroach-like in escaping dangers—in which he excelled—he would stay alive. Probably until the end of the world, for all Kuroro knew.

Solomon Ring aside, Kuroro remembered the sparks of blue flames that would sometimes erupted from the Kuruta's chains. While Kurapika seemed to be clueless about the blue flames, Kuroro noted then that Deifri—the Ifrit that he had assigned to protect her long years ago—had been doing his job decently. It was only decent because had he been doing a good job, Kurapika would not have been cut by Yorn's lethal arrow.

Saying nothing, Kuroro went to the glass wall that overlooked the metropolitan city. The view was breathtaking, with the flickering lights scattered all over the vast city. The city was alive and bustling even in during the night. Perhaps that was why the city was so attractive for so many people. Personally, he regarded the city only as the perfect place to set a Headquarter since the more populated the place was, the easier it would be to blend in with the crowds.

Lazily, he threw some random glances at the streets and roads, wondering vaguely if he could spot Shalnark and Meta on their way or not.

* * *

Leorio sighed, and that was not the first one.

The trio was once again combing the streets of Yorkshin City in search of Meta. They had not understood Lucian's words to Kurapika; which was spoken in Romanian, since they did not understand the language. They did not have the chance to ask Kurapika regarding that since she was spirited away by Kuroro before they could ask her. In the end, they had no choice but to manually search the entire city. After hours of search, they decided to rendezvous at certain spot to take a break.

"One night encounter can result in this child. I've never thought that Kurapika is _that_ fertile." The doctor muttered to himself, but the other boys heard him.

"Say that in front of her, she'll bludgeon you to death for sure." Killua snickered. "'Sides, I heard that blondes are especially more fertile than any other types of women."

Leorio's eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets.

"How did you know this?"

Killua raised a mocking eyebrow. "You're a doctor, yet you don't even know about this?"

"Well, I am a medicinal doctor, not some, some…some that-kind-of-stuff doctor!" Leorio said with the furious blush on his face.

Killua let out a snort and went on with the crepes that he was eating—it was overflowing with ice-cream, naturally. Gon was helping himself with his crepe as well, while his eyes actively drifted among the crowds as he still hoped to spot any blond boy by chance. Who would have thought that this effort would pay off?

Truthfully, it was not Meta that Gon had spotted. It was Shalnark.

The spiky-haired teenager saw the Spider walking down the street with purposeful stride, and his hand was occupied with holding another much smaller hand. When Gon spotted him, he just tensed slightly because his mind instantly reminded him that he was a Spider; a dangerous personage and thus the alert. However, considering that it was _only_ Shalnark, Gon cooled down a bit but when he spotted the other person walking along the Spider, he changed his mind.

"Oh!" He exclaimed thoughtlessly, before realising that it was not wise of him to exclaim at all.

Guiltily, he covered his mouth with his hand and threw a quick glance at his two other friends. Fortunately, they were still arguing about all other matters that Gon would prefer not to listen to. The reason why he did not want to attract the attention of his friends was because of the very fact that Meta was with a Spider. Leorio was still unhappy about the Spiders and had declared that he would not want to have any damn things to do with that crazy organization for the rest of his life. As for Killua, he had expressed his wariness for the group although he did express his admiration for the skills that the Spiders displayed from time to time. Gon himself was of course highly distasteful of their activities but Shalnark was a slight exception.

They had had occasional encounters with that particular Spider, notably in the Prancing Pony Inn when Shalnark was there to visit Fino and when Gon and the gang were on their way to Kurapika's house. Despite Fino's insistence, Kurapika had decided to move out of the Inn and built her own house for her and Meta. During those occasional interactions, Gon found Shalnark's personality acceptable, if not pleasing to certain extent. Nevertheless, Gon always tried to make a mental reminder that the innocent, harmless looking youth was still a Spider in essence. It was beyond his understanding why Fino was able to tolerate his occupation. That girl was an oddball, period.

As stealthily as he could, Gon moved away from his friends and made his way to approach Shalnark and Meta. When he was close enough, Meta turned his face towards his direction. It took Gon by surprise, because the boy directly looked at him purposefully—as if he knew what he was looking at.

"Gon!" With a squeal, Meta tried to run towards him but was unable to do so because Shalnark kept a firm grip around his hand.

"Woah, woah! Hold your horses, boy." Shalnark exclaimed while trying to pull Meta back to his side.

"Hey, Shalnark." Gon greeted him not unkindly.

"Gon!" Shalnark gave a generous smile. Personally, he had nothing against Kurapika's friends. If anything, he found them interesting, especially Gon since; like what Nobunaga kept telling everyone, the boy somewhat resembled Uvogin—only with different moral conscience.

"Shalnark, let go!" Meta demanded while trying to wriggle his small wrist out of Shalnark's iron grip.

"Oh, alright." The sandy-brown haired youth released his hand and in no time Meta was already bolting towards Gon. He had been holding Meta's hand because he knew of the boy's knack of running off without telling anyone. Then again, even if the boy ran off, Shalnark would still be able to track him down. After all, he was familiar with the layout Yorkshin City.

On second thought and further consideration, why would Meta want to run off somewhere else? The boy had been supremely thrilled when he was informed that he was going to be delivered to _both_ his parents—which meant he would get to see the two of them together for the first time in his four years of life.

There was a high-pitched squeal of delight coming from the boy as Gon scooped him up in one smooth move in his arms.

"Gon! Gon!" Meta exclaimed, absolutely happy to see a familiar face.

He began pinching Gon's cheeks and playing with his spiky hair. Not minding Meta's harassment, Gon only laughed; profoundly content that he _finally_ managed to find the blond boy. He gave Meta a huge bear hug, and the boy returned it with hyper giggles.

After several minutes of the 'touching' reunion, Gon turned to face Shalnark; who was sporting a neutral expression.

"Where are you taking him?" Gon could not help the wary tone in his voice, and Shalnark understood it so he only shrugged it off indifferently.

"Can't tell you." Shalnark grinned at him. "Confidential information."

Gon had opened his mouth to protest, but Shalnark cut him off.

"But he's going to meet his parents. That much I can tell you."

Hearing this, Gon abandoned all protests he had. He was satisfied enough with that answer. If Meta was going to see Kurapika, then all was well. But…how could he make certain of that?

"Hey, hey. Why would I lie to you about this?" Shalnark prompted him before he could voice that thought out loud.

Gon pursed his lips sulkily.

"I would never know…"

Shalnark rolled his eyes.

"Danchou will _definitely,_" he stressed the word purposefully, "kill me if something happen to Meta. Does that bring any reassurance to you?"

"He will?" Gon actually sounded genuinely surprise. As if the thought of Kuroro showing care about Meta was an alien concept to him—which was not surprising. After all, he barely knew Kuroro Lucifer and Kurapika refused to say anything regarding him and his personality (except for the bad ones, of course)

Shalnark, understanding Gon's amazement, only laughed heartily.

"Meta, come on! Let's go." He called out to the boy.

The said boy obeyed him almost immediately and detached himself from Gon's arms. He ran towards Shalnark and grabbed his hand although Shalnark did not extend his hand out to him. Gon sulked slightly because he felt that Meta seemed to choose the Spider over him.

"Bye, Gon! See you again!" Meta waved at him energetically, before he urged Shalnark to move quickly.

Throwing a goodbye gesture at Gon over his shoulder while giving one final glance at the teenager, Shalnark walked away with Meta in hand and soon enough disappeared among the throngs of people. No sooner than their disappearance, Gon could hear Killua and Leorio coming towards him.

"Gon! What's wrong with you, running off like that? You're just like Meta!" Leorio exclaimed.

"Well, what do you expect? I think Meta picked up the habit from him." Killua grinned. "What are you doing, anyway? Anything interesting here?" The silver-haired Zaoldyck looked around the vicinity curiously.

Gon shook his head slowly. "Nah, nothing interesting here. Let's go back to our hotel, though. I'm tired!" Gon beamed at them, in contradiction with his declaration of tiredness.

"You don't seem that tired to me." Killua clucked his tongue with a smirk. "But what about Meta? We still haven't found him."

"Oh, I think he's alright. Come to think of it, Kurapika should've found him by now, should she?" Gon reasoned, still with the smile plastered on his innocent face.

"But—" Leorio started to protest, but as he gave further consideration to that thought, "…that makes sense." He eventually nodded in agreement. "Considering this is Kurapika we're talking about…"

With no further argument, the trio headed back to the hotel. Gon, however, threw one last glance to the direction where Shalnark and Meta were heading to. He made a mental note to check whatever places were in that direction, once they got into their hotel room.

Unbeknownst to all of them, there was another party in the scene that spotted Shalnark and Meta, and this character was quite related to Kurapika.

* * *

"I'm curious…" He started, and it made Kurapika stiffens. Whatever it was that the man was curious about, she had the feeling that she would not at all be so eager to answer any of his questions at all. Despite so, she would be foolish if she thought she could refuse to answer his questions.

Since Kurapika said nothing, Kuroro proceeded with his question.

"How did your friends respond to Meta's…" he paused as he searched for suitable word, "…arrival?"

She almost snorted in amusement for the word that he used. It sounded almost too comical—considering it was Kuroro Lucifer who said it—but she was not about to show it. Sporting a neutral look, she answered with flat tone:

"Suffice to say that I excused myself from their presence for one good year before I came back with Meta in tow."

"And how did they react?" He asked, genuinely intrigued.

Despite herself, her reluctance to answer, and her agitation regarding Meta, Kurapika could not hold back a smirk.

"Killua was only slightly surprised—it seemed that he had anticipated it."

_That cheeky brat…_Kurapika muttered to herself, not unkindly though.

"Gon was absolutely thrilled," she continued, "while Leorio…" She could not help but to smother a gleeful laugh.

"He fainted." He guessed.

"He almost died from instant heart attack." She chuckled softly as she recalled the look on Leorio's face on that day. Oh, it was priceless and definitely worthy to be committed to memory for eternity.

Kuroro let out a small smile. Somehow, if he related Leorio to Nobunaga, he could get the gist on what kind of expression the young doctor would have. He had the suspicion that those two people were more alike to each other than people expected. When Kurapika had reassumed her former neutral expression, she gazed at Kuroro.

"And how did the Spiders react when they first discovered about him?"

"You will have to ask Machi for that. I was not around at that time. When I came back, Meta was already messing around with them, making a complete fool out of poor Nobu." He shrugged nonchalantly but felt his lips tugging up slightly upon remembering the hilarious scene.

"Where were you?" Kurapika asked with a slight frown.

"I was summoned to Ryuusei-gai by Hatsubaba."

"Ah…" She knew what kind of topic that Hatsubaba might have wanted to discuss with the Spider Head. "About Ishtar's…" she rolled her tongue briefly in search for appropriate term, "…legacy?"

Kuroro gave no response; which Kurapika took as a "yes". In that split second, upon remembering about Ryuusei-gai and most of all Ishtar, a scene flashed in her mind:

_Ishtar's frail hand in hers…The dark blood pouring from the slit wound on her throat…The pair of abysmal dark eyes that were dulling away…Her ghostly pale skin…Her weak voice…Her last request to her…_

"_Look after him?"_

Kurapika shuddered at the memory of Ishtar's death and her promise to her to, of all things, look after Kuroro Lucifer. In the end, she never managed to do it and in fact, it seemed to be the other way round. Before she could process her words, they had stumbled out of her mouth:

"Tell me about it."

Kuroro blinked once and turned to look at her with openly taken aback expression, while Kurapika still wore the indifferent expression while inwardly she was just as shocked as he was upon hearing her own words. A brief moment of silence ensued, before Kuroro took a seat just across her and began telling her about his repetitive summons to Ryuusei-gai by Hatsubaba's behests.

He told her about how Hatsubaba had persistently urged him to be Ishtar's successor—and therefore the Lord of Ryuusei-gai (ridiculous as it sounded, according to Kurapika's personal opinion)—since he was the only 'official' son and heir to her unique blood. With Ishtar gone, now it was up to him to decide on what to do with Ryuusei-gai; the entire city was literally under his mercy and command.

"I'm not up for the job." Kuroro admitted to Kurapika, but the young woman gave him a stern, scolding look that was so endearingly characteristic of her.

"You are just running away from responsibility." She stated deadpan.

With an aloof smile and an offhanded shrug, he responded with a "Perhaps," which irritated Kurapika even more. Before Kurapika could proceed with giving him another lengthy lecture, Kuroro continued with his story.

"Assuming that I do want to run away from that unpleasant responsibility, I am eligible to do that with one condition." He said while looking up so that his obsidian eyes met with Kurapika's oceanic eyes. She frowned at him with slight suspicion. She felt a bad wind coming her way.

"Which is?" She asked with deliberately slow, stretched voice.

Kuroro gave away a small, thin smirk—one that made Kurapika shudder.

"Simply that I find a suitable replacement for myself."

A thick, heavy silence filled the room to the point of suffocation. No. To be precise, the heaviness in the atmosphere was coming from Kurapika, who was really emitting a thoroughly displeased vibe.

"NO!" She suddenly exclaimed with voice of indignation as she sprang to her feet; so violent this action was that her chair almost fell out of balance to the carpeted floor.

"I haven't even said anything." Kuroro said with distinctive amusement in his voice, clearly entertained by Kurapika's irate reaction.

"Oh, but your eyes say everything. You intend to make me take Ishtar's place? Forget it! I want to live a normal life with Meta. I don't want to have anything to do with that abnormal place that produces abnormal people like you." She declared heatedly with no tinge of probable toleration in her voice or demeanour.

She knew she was right, because Kuroro did not straight away refute her assumption, and because she had enough evidence to substantiate her deduction. First, the way Kuroro said everything was already like the introduction to a proposal that he was about to make—the proposal to be Isthar's successor, in this context. She knew his style, after all. Second, Kuroro did mention that the reason he was chosen as the heir was because he inherited Ishtar's blood—which she did as well, though not as much as he did. In this sense, she was eligible to be a successor. There were other baseless assumptions as well, ones that stood only on emotional and gut-feelings grounds.

Kurapika then caught something else in Kuroro's eyes. Her frowns deepened in more displeasure.

"And don't you dare even thinking of making Meta as your replacement!" It was closer to a screech than an exclamation of anger.

"Why not? He is my son." Kuroro said coolly while clasping his hands and resting them on the lap of his crossed legs.

"An _estranged_ son until a few days ago." She hissed.

"_You_ are the one who estrange him from me."

"Whatever it is, I am not allowing him to have anything to do with any other abnormalities more than he already has!"

"Despite the fact that his father is abnormal—as you dub it—_and_ his _mother_ is as well?"

Kurapika's face visibly blanched, knowing that he was referring to Ishtar's blood that coursed within her. It was very apparent that he was hitting on sensitive issue, but he was not so kind this time. He had never been one to be merciful in the first place, anyway. He pressed on:

"Which makes him abnormal as well, just like me and the rest of people of Ryuusei-gai," Kuroro continued lightly, "if not more abnormal."

"Don't—"

She had intended to rebuke his point, but seeing right into his eyes and gazing at the honesty and truth in those obsidian eyes, she could not even do so much as choking out a word. Kurapika inhaled deeply to calm herself and breathed the tension out of her system. She closed her eyes in attempt to cool down her temper. Kuroro waited patiently for her, until she finally heaved one final sigh and said with even and controlled voice:

"You're right. I've been in denial all this time. Sorry…"

Kuroro raised an eyebrow. He had expected more cool-headed retaliation and argument from the girl—no, she was no longer a girl, she was now a woman. A mature young woman. She was even more mature than the last time he had seen her. How impressive.

He could not help but to feel proud of her.

The subduing tension was further broken by a sudden phone call for Kurapika. Hastily, she picked the phone, but not without checking the caller ID first. She frowned when she looked at the name of the caller, but answered the call nonetheless.

"Cash. Is there anything I can—"

She never managed to finish her sentence because the caller mercilessly bombarded her with his deep, bass voice.

_[Kurapika! Man, I saw your boy walking with one of the Genei Ryodan member!]_

Kurapika froze and her heart skipped a beat. Throwing one tentative glance at Kuroro; who was observing her silently, she tried to speak as casually as she usually did with Cash.

"Are you sure you are not seeing wrongly?" She asked with the calmest tone she could muster.

_[I'm not blind, dammit! I'm dead sure it's your little boy! And I dare to swear that the guy who's with him—a young man with severe case of baby-face—is one of the Ryodan! What the hell is goin' on? Where are you?]_

The Kuruta gnawed her lower lip nervously. She could not possibly explain the whole thing to Cash over the phone. In the first place, the whole circumstances were impossible to simply be explained at all due to the complexity. Besides, it was just too much of a hassle to explain _everything_ all over again to a complete newcomer like him. On top of everything, she had no immediate sensible explanation for it.

While Kurapika was still mulling over the plausible reasons she could give to satisfy the hot-headed brawny man's tirade of questions, she failed to notice that Kuroro was already standing right in front of her in very close proximity. He eyed the phone she was holding in her hand intensely, and then slipped his fingers to grasp the gadget without her permission. Smoothly, he peeled off the phone from Kurapika's hand and raised it to the level of his ears.

_[Kurapika? Hello? Answer me, man! You there? What's happenin'? Why is your boy here in Yorkshin City? And what's with the Ryodan member with him?]_ came Cash's impatient inquiries over the speaker.

"Does that pose any problems to you?" Kuroro's voice was like a bucket of cold water dumped to subdue Cash's fiery questioning.

Silence filled the room as Cash had stopped his blabbering over the phone. Kurapika stared at Kuroro with a look of mild horror on her face, but she said nothing to complain about Kuroro's way of handling Cash. If anything, she was curious to see how he would deal with the situation. Cash was, after all, infamous for being such a prick in the flesh when it came to his 'interrogation'.

_[Who the hell are you?]_ Cash finally managed to find his voice but there was a thick accent of wariness and suspicion in his voice.

Kuroro threw one glance at Kurapika, and she caught a glimpse of something glazing across those obsidian eyes. She could not help but to straighten up when she spotted that flash in a fleeting millisecond. After a long second of anticipation, Kuroro answered Cash's question with a wide smirk plastered on his handsome face.

"Her husband."

Kurapika made a funny choked sound, but it was faint enough not to be heard by Cash who was on the other side of the line. At the same time, Kuroro could virtually taste the similar strangled sensation that was overwhelming Kurapika's fellow Hunter colleague—even over the phone.

_[The shameless bastard who abandoned his family for years and never visiting for even one measly time?]_

Cash's response had been a fierce roar that sounded almost indignant. Kuroro had to stretch his arm away from his head in attempt to prevent his hearing from being damaged by Cash's yell. The capacity of his lungs reminded Kuroro of Uvogin, though Uvogin's cry was much more ear-splitting—if not brain-splitting. Cash started cursing around with colourful combination of vocabularies that would even amaze Phinks and Nobunaga. All the while, Kurapika slapped a hand on her forehead as she overheard Cash's careless usage of profanities and vulgarities. Good thing that Meta was not around.

Suddenly, the cursing stopped.

_[Wait a goddamn minute…]_

Kurapika's visage adopted an "Uh-oh…Here it comes…" kind of expression.

_[You're a Ryodan?]_

Kuroro could see Kurapika shaking her head rather vigorously, obviously trying to tell him not to admit the truth to her confrere. Kuroro responded to her with his characteristic lopsided smirk.

"I am Kuroro Lucifer."

A silence ensued. Kurapika looked on at Kuroro and her phone that he was holding with a look of profound dread.

_[Holy-molly shit. No way, man…]_ Cash moaned breathlessly.

The reason for Cash's reaction had been the fact that Cash did know of the identities of the Genei Ryodan members. Kuroro knew from Shalnark's investigation that the Hunters website had hosted wonderful information about the Genei Ryodan. Even Kuroro could not help but to wonder how the site could supply such accurate information about them. In any case, the names of the members were displayed in the 'highly confidential' cum 'robbing-blind expensive' information of the Genei Ryodan. If Cash could identify Shalnark as a Spider in first glance, Kuroro could easily deduce that the man had accessed that information through the site.

In conclusion, if Cash was bright enough, he would understand the implication of Kuroro divulging his name to him. Cash ought to know that he was dealing with the leader of the Genei Ryodan upon hearing Kuroro Lucifer's name.

Satisfied with the silence he managed to inflict on the man on the other side of the call, Kuroro decided that his intervention was enough. He returned the phone to its rightful owner and folded his arms across his chest while observing Kurapika still. He was curious to see how the conversation would turn to now that he had intervened with it.

"Cash?" Kurapika muttered with small, unsure voice.

_[Girl! You owe me a huge deal of explanation big time!]_ Cash demanded, finding his energy back now that it was Kurapika who was answering the phone.

"No. I have nothing to explain to you regarding this, Cash. This issue is off-limit." Kurapika responded readily and firmly, this time prepared to deal with the stubborn Hunter. "You can say whatever you want about me, but it won't change anything. I am _not_ explaining anything to you."

Yes, enough was enough. She had had enough of trying to explain her circumstances to the people around her, and it always ended up disastrous; so disastrous that she preferred not to remember them at all.

Cash was the type who would forget his limit when he started interrogating people. Unfortunately, Kurapika was the type who could get very cross when pressed about issue that she had no wish in discussing about. Once infuriated, Kurapika's fury could know no bound and Cash had been the victim of it once. Since then, he learned not to be too dense when it came to questioning people—Kurapika especially.

Sensing Kurapika's scathing tone as his cue, Cash dropped his 'inspector' role and decided to go on the safe side.

_[The reason why you always tried to convince me not to hunt down the Genei Ryodan; is it because you want to protect your man?]_

Kurapika gave a snort of indignation.

"I don't give a damn about them." Her words sounded almost like a spat. "I just don't want people wasting their lives for things that are obviously out of their capabilities."

_[But—]_

"Stop sticking your nose to where it doesn't belong to. I'm hanging up."

True to her word, she immediately jammed the 'End Call' button with her thumb and shoved the phone into her pocket with vengeance. Despite the fumes that were virtually seething out of Kurapika, Kuroro brought up a certain interesting issue.

"Shameless bastard…" Kuroro repeated Cash's description of him with voice that was very akin to amusement. He turned to look at Kurapika with a raised eyebrow. "Why do I get the feeling that the phrase had come from you?"

"So what if it is?" She snapped at him, not bothering to be polite and all. In the first place, she had never been polite to him anyway. There was never such thing whenever she was with him. It was kind of refreshing, actually.

Before Kuroro could respond to that, a loud thud could be heard from the door of the suite. Alerted, both searched with their Nen and detected a very faint Nen emitted from just behind the door. It was so faint that they both had a hard time even identifying the owner of the Nen. However, identifying it was unnecessary as the door was slammed upon in the next instant and falling into a heap to the suite's floor was a person—a certain young man.

Uncharacteristically of him, Shalnark stumbled into the suite with utmost lack of grace. If anything, he did not stumble in—he collapsed into the room, barely conscious. In fact, it was almost a miracle that the sandy-brown haired young man was able to reach the suite with the blood overflowing from his gutted stomach. Yes, one glance at Shalnark and both Kurapika and Kuruta knew straight away that his stomach was virtually ripped open.

There was a sharp gasp of mortification coming from Kurapika, while Kuroro was already by the battered younger man's side in the instant. As gently as he could, Kuroro rolled Shalnark to his back and he narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw his wound. He knew that wound. There was only one person on Earth who could inflict that kind of wound, and it certainly only spelled DISASTER. However, what made him frown even more was the fact that there were silvery strands of what seemed like spider webs criss-crossing across the open wound. Now that he had taken a closer look, he suspected that the spider webs were the reason why Shalnark survived at all. They helped to stitch the wounds albeit not entirely to prevent the bleeding.

_Two,_ Kuroro muttered in his mind. _Two people are involved in this._

"What happened? Shalnark?" Kurapika called out to the bloodied up Spider as she summoned forth her Holy Chain without a moment of hesitation. Even as the glow of the Holy Chain blanketed the wounds, Shalnark's face was still as pale as a corpse's.

"Wait." Kuroro said suddenly with sharp edge in his tone.

The authoritativeness in his voice made even Kurapika stops whatever she was doing in obedience to that command. She looked up at Kuroro with annoyance, since he was getting in the way of her healing the wounds. He was staring intensely at the wound, and he reached out to it. Without hesitance, he actually dug his hand into the gaping wound; causing Shalnark to choke out more blood and writhed in agonized pain, and Kurapika to cringe in unreserved disgust and horror. When Kurapika was about to give Kuroro a huge piece of her mind, she forgot all about it when she saw Kuroro pulling his hand literally out of Shalnark's gut with an object held between his sinewy index and middle fingers.

A card.

Kurapika blanched instantly. Too distracted by Shalnark's dire condition, she had forgotten one important mission that the man was supposed to be carrying—to deliver Meta to them. And the four-years-old was nowhere to be found.

As if pulling the card was the same as lifting a silent curse from him, with shaky voice Shalnark managed to choke out two words:

"Hisoka…Forest…"

And then he succumbed into oblivion.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Okay, this time round I didn't get the chance to proof read this chapter. The moment the last word was typed down, I uploaded it without further thought. So if there are any minor errors, ignore them. If there are major errors, please do notify me. School assignments were glaring at me all the while I was typing down this chapter o.O The title is 'Abnormality' because it's referring to Meta's uncanny abilities and his curious and peculiar heritage._

_By the by, Ishtar's quote of "Truth is truth no matter how much you try to alter it" is the same one as Kuroro once said in the oneshot chapter "Half Empty Glass". _

_**Next:**__ Just as they were starting to get into a more friendlier dynamics and as they were anticipating Meta's arrival so that they could attest the boy's suspected ability to hear the Dark Whispers, Shalnark was the only one who arrived—all bloody and barely alive. A foreboding and daunting news awaited them: Meta was missing, and Hisoka—and another person as well, in Kuroro's suspicion—was involved. What had happened to Shalnark and Meta on the way to the hotel? And what was with the silvery spider webs on Shalnark's wounds?_


	9. Chapter 7: Interference

_**Disclaimer: **__Still not mine._

_**Story so far:**__ As Kurapika and Kuroro were anticipating Shalnark's arrival with Meta in tow, the young Spider stumbled into their place without the said boy. Even worse was the fact that he bore critical wounds all over his body with an evidence to say who the culprit was: it was none other than a certain freak-of-nature jester._

* * *

**Chapter 7**

_**INTERFERENCE**_

* * *

"Hisoka."

The word had escaped his lips almost all too casually, with only a hint of surprise in it. However, Shalnark later realized that by right he should have sounded mortified. After all, Meta was with him.

Without so much as changing his expression or even changing the quality of the air around him, Shalnark moved ever so smoothly to shelter the little blond boy from Hisoka's line of view. Mentally he crossed his fingers that the more-often-than-not-a-mad-hatter man had not spotted the boy. Good thing was Meta still had not developed his Nen. The quality of raw, undeveloped Nen was distinctive; almost diminutive and undetectable as they were insignificant and unrecognisable.

No such luck, though.

"Well well, look at who we have here~~" Hisoka; with his characteristic flame-shaped orange hair standing in defiance against the law of gravity, cocked his head sideways. His eyes narrowed slightly and he craned his neck in attempt to peek at the small figure who was standing blissfully unaware of the dangerous slur in the jester's voice.

"What, you have forgotten me already?" Shalnark faked a hurt voice and expression. As if trying to act dramatic, he put his hands akimbo and swayed his body a bit to further conceal Meta from Hisoka's searching gaze.

"No, no. Not you." Hisoka narrowed his eyes at him while giving him a dirty look, but a thin sinister smile soon began to flourish in his lips. "I think I have just spotted something positively interesting, and I believe you are in the way."

"What—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Shalnark saw something coming his way in ungodly speed. His reflexes perfectly trained and prime, he raised his hand just on time to catch the projectile thrown right to his face. Had he been late by a millisecond, he would have had two cards protruding from his face grotesquely.

"Hey! What was that for?" He exclaimed in protest while throwing away the cards with a flick of his wrist.

Pursing his lips in a displeased manner, Hisoka started to advance towards him. Shalnark had the urge to scoop the boy behind him and made a run for Kuroro's place. However, that would be suicidal. Not only that he knew by heart that Hisoka's potential was way beyond him, having Meta in his arms would limit his movements considerably. He dared not imagine what would happen if he was to bring an injured Meta to Kuroro and Kurapika. He'd get tortured to death by a certain angry Mother Hen, and only God in Heavens above would know what Kuroro would do in response to the boy getting harmed when in his care.

"You are in the way." Hisoka repeated with his lips forming a malicious crescent that sent his shivers down his spine. Normal people would have stoned in dread upon seeing that smirk, while the faint-hearted ones would have passed out on the spot. "I want to see _who_ is behind you."

"Shalnark?" A tiny voice came from behind him at the same time a hand tugged at his shirt inquiringly.

Shalnark groaned mentally. What a luck he was having that night.

"Aah~~" Hisoka stopped in his track and deliberately gave a thorough scrutiny at the blond boy that was stepping out of Shalnark's shadow. His eyes narrowed into a slit that indicated that he was thinking—or rather, ransacking his memory. "I'm seeing a strangely familiar face…in a very tiny version."

Shalnark gulped hard. _No good._

Meta turned towards the stranger dressing in funny fashion and his eyes went wide in what might be discerned as instinctive fear. The boy with highly receptive sixth sense could immediately sense the danger lurking within the jester-like man. Meta took one step back, wishing that he had not stepped out of Shalnark's protective shadow out of his curiosity. He remembered vaguely that his mother had often reprimanded him for running off on his own without telling anyone due to his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Shalnark? Who is he?" The boy asked with understandably quiet voice while clutching the hem of the young man's shirt tightly, his hand forming a small nervous fist.

"Hello there~" Hisoka, still smirking, lowered down his body so that he was squatting down to the boy's eye level. While his voice sounded gentle enough, it still sounded undeniably creepy. "Have I met you before?"

The boy shook his head timidly as he pressed himself close to Shalnark's legs. He was getting really terrified of the man. The more he looked at him, the more he could see the danger that was virtually seething out of him. What more, his invisible tutor was urging him to be on the qui vive in his presence.

_**Don't lower your guard, Meta. Keep alert. This man is dangerous.**_Ishtar told him with a tension-filled voice. It was so unlike her to sound so wary. In her part, this was one of the times when she felt so frustrated of being bodiless. She felt so utterly useless—all she could do was giving advice without being able to physically help him.

"Hmm~~" Hisoka cocked his head to one side, a look of profound curiosity apparent in his pale face. "I swear that he looks so much like a certain fellow Hunter of mine…"

"Really? Well, blond hair and blue eyes are quite commonplace these days, huh?" Shalnark said with cheery voice, while in the inside he was a wreck—his stomach was knotting uneasily.

"Not only the hair and the eyes. But that face…" Hisoka squinted as if to get a better look at the boy and he craned his neck further.

In response to this gesture, Meta shrunk further into the sheltering shadow of Shalnark so that half of him was shielded from Hisoka's prying stare.

"Say, Shalnark. Who is that boy?" The taller man asked as he straightened up without tearing his searching gaze from Meta.

"This boy? Just the son of an acquaintance."

Which was not entirely a lie. After all, Kuroro Lucifer was his Danchou and Kurapika…well, she was definitely more than just an acquaintance by now.

"An _acquaintance_?" This time, Hisoka averted his gaze to Shalnark and it held a suspecting look. "So what is he doing with you? Are you playing baby-sitter for him?"

"You can say so." Shalnark shrugged casually. "But now it's time for him to return to his parents. So if you'll excuse us."

_Yes, yes, please let us go in peace! Don't ask anything else,_ Shalnark prayed vehemently in his heart as he grabbed Meta's hand.

"Boy, do you know of someone named Kurapika Kuruta?" Hisoka suddenly asked Meta.

The boy's eyes expanded as wide as a saucer.

_**Don't answer him, Meta.**_Ishtar whispered to him. Meta was more than glad to obey her.

"Why are you asking that to him?" Shalnark inquired, sounding genuinely surprised. He was not surprised because of the randomness of that question, but more of a surprise because of suspicion that the demented clown had guessed something right on the money.

"Just curious." Hisoka smirked at the boy widely while pointing at the boy with his index finger. "He looks so much like him, after all."

Yes, Hisoka was still unaware that Kurapika Kuruta was a girl. In the five years that had passed, Kurapika had made great effort—with the help of some of her trustworthy Hunter friends—to avoid certain group of people, and Hisoka was in the list. Hisoka was too unpredictable to be allowed to know that Kurapika was indeed a girl. Nobody could begin to imagine what kind of response the man would give once he knew that Kurapika was a girl and that she had a son with a certain man.

At the same time as when Hisoka raised his index finger to the direction of Meta, a cry of warning resounded in Meta's head.

_**Duck!**_

Accustomed to obey that kind of command for years, Meta did just so without even sparing another thought. How shocked and bewildered Shalnark was to see the boy suddenly making a quick crouch while holding his head as if he was avoiding some projectiles hurled his way. How dangerously delighted Hisoka was when he saw the boy avoiding his Nen-blanketed Bungee Gum that he had thrown at the boy through his index finger. His suspicion was proven true.

"What an intriguing little boy~~" The quality of his voice had changed from a casually curious manner to a bloodthirsty amusement.

Hisoka took one step forward. Despite not knowing of what had just transpired that had caused Hisoka to suddenly change his demeanour, Shalnark knew that it was high time to stop acting clueless. It was time that he prepared himself from the unavoidable clash with that freak. He could not afford getting the boy touched by the time-and-again-a-pervert-and-a-paedophile man. Having known the boy since he was just an infant, Shalnark felt a sense of protectiveness towards him. Not to mention the fact that he was, after all, his Danchou's son. That was more than a reason for him to protect the boy with all he had, though he had not been given any direct order regarding that.

"Shalnark?" The boy asked with quavering voice, the fear unhidden and painfully clear in his feathery voice.

Shalnark responded by putting himself right in front of the boy to completely shield him from the coming Hisoka. He spread his legs further and bent his knees in preparation for necessary actions.

"Ooh? This is getting soo~~ interesting." Hisoka's sadistic grin could not grow wider than that. He was getting excited. So so very much excited. Not only that he had been itching for a good fight as of late, he was presented with a little dessert of puzzle for him to puzzle. What a day!

Shalnark ransacked his brain cells in attempt to find the best and safest way to face the excited Hisoka without getting Meta involved. His ace was in negotiating more than in combat, but Hisoka's current state was not open for any peaceful negotiation. After several milliseconds, he realised that it was far from possible.

_If only Machi was here…_Shalnark thought fleetingly and wistfully. Somehow, the small-bodied purple-haired young woman always had her way to 'tame' the clown.

Suddenly, when Shalnark had just barely detached his thought from that 'what-if', Hisoka made his move. Barely responding in time, Shalnark swung his right arm to his side and his hand made a catching gesture. He did not catch empty air. His hand was clamped around Hisoka's muscular wrist, while Hisoka's hand itself was poised in a manner that resembled an eagle's talon ready to snatch its prey. In this case, the prey would be Meta.

Meta stared wide-eyed at the big hand that was stopped just a mere inch from his face. He looked up from that hand, and his gaze was met by Hisoka's lustful gaze. There was no sense of logic in those wild eyes; only animalistic light coloured them. For that moment, the man resembled a bloodthirsty beast more than a human.

_**Meta! Move it!**_ Ishtar practically barked at him in his mind, her voice tugging harshly at the back of his head.

Snapped back to reality by that violent gesture, Meta blinked and started to stumble out of the way. He knew that he could not fight that deranged man. After being repressed by that murderous aura of Hisoka's, the only thing that the four-years-old boy could think of was to escape from him. He could not stand being in his presence. It was too terrifying.

Apparently, Hisoka would not have such thing. With a flick of his elbow, he sent Shalnark sailing through the air. Manoeuvring his body skilfully, Shalnark managed to land on the even ground with feline grace. While airborne, he managed to throw the antenna of his cell phone—the medium for his Manipulating ability—towards Hisoka. With the ease of someone swatting away irritating flies, Hisoka deflected the antenna using his card.

Just as one of Shalnark's feet barely touched the ground, he accumulated all strength in that one leg and made a forceful spring from the ground towards Hisoka. It was a manipulation of the human body's muscles that was almost impossible for average humans. He was by no means an average human. He was a Spider.

But his opponent was Hisoka.

Shalnark utilised his other leg to make a sweeping move aimed at Hisoka's legs. Due to his awkward position with his feet barely touching the ground in mid-run, Hisoka allowed his legs to be tripped by Shalnark. Tweaking the momentum to his favour, Hisoka rolled on the dirt and managed to stand on both legs in the next instance. It all occurred in one smooth flow that it was almost like a staged act.

Irritated by Shalnark's meddling, Hisoka decided that he had to take care of the younger man first. With his lethal card secured between his index and middle finger—as if he was wielding a razor—the jester made a cleaving move directed at Shalnark's throat. The latter managed to dodge it by a hair's breadth (and with a yelp).

By then, Meta was already at the outskirt of the nearest grove. Hisoka caught a glimpse of the blond boy disappearing into the dark embrace of the night forest, and he clucked his tongue in twisted delight. For him, it was a game of cat-and-mouse. Literally.

"Really, Shalnark…" He said with deliberately slow voice that gave Shalnark goose-bumps as he turned to address him. "Who is that boy?"

"Like I said, he's just the so—"

"Who is the _father_?" Hisoka interjected.

Shalnark chocked silently at his half-formed words. He could not possibly reveal that it was Kurapika; since she was the _mother_. But he could not reveal that the father was Kuroro Lucifer, either. In other words, it was a question he could never answer. Seeing that Shalnark was not going to tell him anything, Hisoka pursed his lips unhappily.

"Then I'll just find out on my own." He stated with his creepily slurry voice. He then turned to saunter towards the woods where Meta had gone to.

"Wait, Hisoka!"

Shalnark had just taken one step towards the deranged jester, but his eyes caught the flash of white cards directed at him in a slashing manner belatedly. By God's grace, he managed to at least sidestep a cut across his vital organ in his stomach, but still Hisoka had managed to inflict quite an extensive damage on him. There was a deep cut across his stomach, but not deep enough to literally cut it open. Still, he felt like he was becoming a fountain of blood. The crimson liquid poured from the open wound freely, and Shalnark clamped his hand on the wound as he tried to stop the bleeding but it was to no avail.

Ignoring the heavily wounded Spider, Hisoka turned to go after the little boy again.

"Hiso—!"

Again, the young Spider was cut off before he could finish his words, however this time it was not by another sentence. This time it was a card that stopped him in his mid-sentence—and the said card was now nestled deep in his gut. It had gained entry right through the wide cut across his stomach. For a seemingly interminable fraction of second, time seemed to have slowed down. When reality came crashing down to him, he found himself lying in the pool of his own blood.

"I told you before~" Hisoka grinned maliciously at him while licking the edge of his card with a maniacal look on his alabaster face. "You are in the way."

Meanwhile, Meta had actually not run into the grove. He had lingered at the outskirt of the forest, observing the hopeless battle.

Despite his early training with Gon and Killua in the arts of self-defence, Meta was still a helpless four-years-old after all. It was understandable, though, that the blond boy had stayed rooted to his ground in Hisoka's presence. Hisoka's dense aura that practically spelled M-U-R-D-E-R had paralysed him and stripped him of any fighting spirit the young boy might possess. The jester's Nen assaulted him mercilessly, turning his heart into lead and sinking it into the pit of his gut. Meta was so terrified. So terrified he was that he began shedding tears of pure terror—especially when he saw Shalnark being bloodied up.

"I sense you there~~" Hisoka's sing-song voice reached his ears, and so the boy averted his fearful gaze from Shalnark's prone body towards the tall man with flame-shaped hair.

There was a mad light flashing from those feral eyes that were overflowing with bloodlust. Hisoka swayed his hips in a very disturbingly suggestive manner, but the boy was still a four-years-old who could make nothing out of that gesture. Besides, even if he could, he was so terror-stricken that his minds were virtually blank. Virtually, because a certain entity kept screaming in his head to take flight.

_**Meta! RUN!**_

After the umpteenth time of the same yell from Ishtar's ghost, Meta finally bolted towards the forest. Seeing the boy's action, Hisoka let out a crazed, almost hysterical laugh.

"Fine then. I will give you a ten-second of head start." He giggled maniacally. "One… Two…"

As Hisoka continued counting out loud, his voice was like the bell chimes of a church during a funeral. He had seen a funeral in a church before when he was in Fino's town. He had instantly disliked the sound of the church's bell during the funeral. During normal Sundays it had sounded nice and comforting, but the quality of the toll was different during funeral. It sounded like it was heralding the pallbearers of Death to fetch the soul of the freshly deceased.

_**He is coming soon!**_

And Ishtar was of no help either.

"Ten."

Like an alarm going off, Hisoka's indirect declaration of "Time's up" prompted the boy to cry out in pure terror. In panic he threw a quick glance over his shoulder, and he saw him. The mad jester was making a beeline for him, and on his face was the most fear-inspiring expression Meta had ever come across in his four-years of life. As despair and untold fear gripped his heart, Meta let out a cry of profound anguish that was accompanied with buckets of tears:

"MOM! DAD!"

The next instance, silvery threads shot from the pitch darkness of the forest towards him and, fortunately, past him.

* * *

"LET GO!" She bellowed at the top of her lungs. If the suite had not been a sound-proofed one, her screams perhaps could have been heard all the way to the lobby of the hotel.

The moment it was registered to Kurapika's mind that Hisoka was involved in the whole bloody incident, she had bolted towards the door of the suite. In ordinary humans' eyes, they would only see flurry of movements without being able to discern what was exactly going on. In truth, when Kurapika had dashed towards the door, Kuroro had moved even faster to block her and prevent her from recklessly running off.

"Kurapika, you have to calm down first. Don't act rash!" He said while trying to restrain the wildly trashing Kuruta in his grip.

"HOW CAN I BE CALM? LET GO! I HAVE TO GO FOR HIM!"

Impatiently, Kuroro roughly took her by her shoulders and slammed her to the carpeted floor. The impact knocked the blessed air out of her lungs and she gasped in surprise for the sudden treatment. Before she could come to her senses and started panicking again, Kuroro had grabbed an arm and twisted it behind her back, locking her movement effectively.

"KURORO!" She started trashing and was about to scream her lungs off but the impending scream died off when she felt the very close proximity of his face to hers.

"Kurapika." He said with low voice, and she could feel his breath brushing against her nape and ears, making her shudder involuntarily despite the tension. "Listen to me."

She fell silent and stiff.

"We _will_ find him." He whispered to her ear, firm and decisive as if he had taken a look at the future of it. "We will find him," he repeated, "only if you cool your head first."

"How can I—" She asked with a hitch in her voice, but it stopped there as she twisted her upper shoulder and head to look at him. Inadvertently, she gave him a pleading look. Kuroro had the suspicion that she had not intended it to show, that she was not even aware that she was giving him that look. It had come so naturally to her that she failed to notice that. Nevertheless, he was not going to point that fact out to her. He was rather enjoying that look.

Kuroro, of course, had no idea on how much Meta meant for Kurapika. His attachment to the boy was not so great YET, after all, having spent only several hours with the boy. Meta was practically her everything, more than what her life was. In the past, her everything had been to revenge her tribes. Then, as much as she wanted to deny it, for a fleeting moment her everything had been Kuroro Lucifer (she would rather die than to ever openly acknowledge that fact though). That was until Meta came along.

"Kurapika." He repeated her name, with their eyes interlocked intensely. "Calm. Down."

Sucking a deep breath, Kurapika looked away and laid her cheek against the cold carpet. She heaved a sigh heavily and noisily. She repeated the gesture—not without a look of consternation and with a deep frown etched between her brows—for several more times until her breathing calmed down considerably and her body was less tense. After feeling the relaxed muscles underneath him, only then Kuroro risked letting go of her.

Docilely and calmly, Kurapika sat up as Kuroro moved away from on top of her. With Kuroro's gaze boring at her, she just had to close her eyes as she tried to prepare herself to actually face him. Of all people, Kuroro Lucifer had to be the one to calm her down. Last time, it had been her other three friends' jobs—notably like the occasions during the Hunter Exam. Oh, how she'd love to go back to that old time. It seemed so distant now.

So many things had changed since then. Too many and too much.

Shaking her head slightly to clear her mind, Kurapika finally opened her eyes and the first thing she did was to glare at Kuroro. The said man raised one quizzical eyebrow. He did not think that he had done anything wrong at all.

"Okay. I'm calm now." She stated, with her glare still transfixed at him.

Kuroro now raised both eyebrows. Despite her words, Kuroro could clearly see the glassiness in her eyes—the tell-tale sign that she had been on the verge of tears—but she had miraculously held back those impending tears and reassumed her tough-girl persona. It seemed that his expression had changed slightly as he looked at her eyes, because Kurapika soon looked away with abashed expression apparent on her face. She seemed to have just realised that she had been giving away her feelings far too much.

_Oh, that's too bad,_ Kuroro thought with mild amusement.

Seeing her crying would be tremendously entertaining. He had only seen her crying for several times: first was when she was hallucinating in her feverish state due to the shocking transformation from male body to female body, after her enchanted earring had been broken; second was in the cave when he was almost down with tetanus and she had thrown a fit because of Kuroro's remark of "I have done you great harm."; third was when she was dragging the half-dead him towards the sanctuary of the Inari Shrine; fourth was during the time when she first saw her brother's head—one that _he_ personally had decapitated. Four times in the span of 2 years of their travel around the world together in search for the Scarlet Eyes.

In attempt to fill in the silence, Kurapika summoned forth her Dowsing Chain and started dowsing for; Kuroro highly suspected, Meta's location. He let her have her way as he waited patiently until she was done. However, he noticed something strange. The Dowsing Chain was as still as frozen statue. He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. It seemed that the Dowsing Chain could not locate Meta at all.

When Kurapika dismissed her Dowsing Chain, Kuroro looked up to spot any changes in her expression. Trying her best not to be overwhelmed by the new sensation of panic that was starting to swell in her heart, she averted her gaze carefully to meet with Kuroro's searching one.

"What do we do now?"

Despite her calm voice, there was still a sense of urgency in it. Kuroro supposed that she could not help it. Shrugging off that irrelevant matter, he turned to regard Shalnark's prone body with a casual glance.

"I suppose we have to wait until Shalnark comes around, then we can question him about the details."

"We don't have much time." Kurapika stated sternly with a deep frown etched on her pale visage.

"Then go and do your job." Kuroro said as he jerked his chin to Shalnark's direction.

Mustering a grand scowl on her face, Kurapika strode past Kuroro and crouched next to Shalnark. She summoned forth her Holy Chain and began healing the not-so-dying-anymore Spider. Kuroro stood on the sideline with arms folded across his chest. He had always marvelled at the sight of Kurapika whenever she was utilising her Nen chain, particularly when she was not wearing any contact lens and so her Scarlet Eyes were his to behold—more so when he could view it exclusively in private. It made him feel special, and he was pleased with that notion. He knew very well that Kurapika did not show her Scarlet Eyes to just anyone.

After a few minutes, Kurapika dismissed her Nen chain but still Shalnark had not opened his eyes. He did seem to be in considerably less pain, though. Kurapika frowned at this and she gazed at Kuroro in a questioning manner. Kuroro could only shrug. He had no idea on why Shalnark was not waking up either.

"He looks like he's sleeping to me." Kuroro finally admitted after a cursory glance at the sandy-brown haired youth's face.

"The nerve of him…" Kurapika growled.

"What do you think you are doing?" Kuroro asked though his voice was of a highly amused tone.

The reason why Kuroro asked this was because Kurapika had moved position to sit next to Shalnark's head and she had actually clamped the young man's mouth with one hand and pinched his nose with the thumb and index finger of the other hand. She looked up at Kuroro when he uttered the question, and she flashed him one of her dangerous smirks.

"Waking him up."

* * *

Shalnark blinked once. Then twice. Then thrice.

He was sitting under the shade of a tree that he had christened as his favourite spot in the entire town. That tree grew at yard that surrounded the Prancing Pony Inn. Conveniently, one of its thick branches was spread right next to the window of Fino's bedroom. Its fat trunk had often served as his pillow as the tree bark was soft despite the muscular structure of the trunk.

He frowned at this. He had not remembered going to the town to visit Fino. Why was he here? Most importantly, why was he having the nagging feeling that he had forgotten something very crucial? The more he tried to search into his mind, the more the memory seemed to slip out of his reach. Frustrated, he heaved a heavy, noisy sigh and leaned further into the softness of the tree bark on his back. The gentle wind caressed his face, blowing his sandy-brown hair in a playful manner. Suddenly, he felt a weight was dropped to his lap.

Snapping open his eyes almost immediately after he felt the change, he found Meta staring at him with his big, round deep blue eyes with his small elbows resting on Shalnark's lap. The boy said nothing at all; which Shalnark found odd. Usually the boy would come to him asking a whole long list of questions that would virtually drive him to the brink of his insanity. This time, he only stared at him with those curious eyes.

Meta did do that kind of gestures from time to time, and whenever he did that, the boy's stare reminded him so much of his Danchou. Yes, Meta stared just like Kuroro Lucifer did. Shalnark would often wonder if Kurapika noticed this or not. If she did, he wondered how her reaction had been.

"Shalnark." The boy finally said after a long stretch of uncanny silence.

"Hm?" He responded rather lazily.

"What's that stuck on the tree?"

Shalnark cocked his eyes, and turned to look at the direction where the little boy was looking at. Much to his surprise, he saw a card embedded deep into the bark of the tree just right next to his head. He had not spotted that card there before. Since when had it gotten there? When he was still staring at the card with a rather dumb expression on his face, Meta's voice chimed again.

"Shalnark?"

"Yeah?" He responded absentmindedly while still staring like an idiot at the card.

"Shalnark." Meta called at him again.

Understanding that the boy wanted him to look at him in the eyes—one of the result of Kurapika's strict teaching on 'proper manner'—Shalnark averted his attention from the card to the boy on his lap. Terror gripped his heart when he saw Meta no longer, but Hisoka.

"Who is the father?" The taller, bigger man asked with a grin that could be associated with the Devil's own grin.

A sharp gasp escaped Shalnark's mouth and he instinctively tried to get away from the deranged jester. Before he could do as much as inching away from him, Hisoka's hand shot up towards him with a speed that even eluded Shalnark's eyes and it landed across Shalnark's mouth—effectively gagging the younger man.

"Now, now..." Hisoka continued to grin maniacally, "you are being such a baa~~d boy."

Out of the blue, Hisoka's face drew closer to a dangerously close proximity. His eyes narrowed into a curved slit as they laughed evilly at him. He then whispered to him in the most disturbing manner:

"You shall be punished~"

Then, he pressed his lips against Shalnark's. This gesture resulted in Shalnark gasping like his soul was sucked by some demons, and he forgot how to breathe. The torture seemed to press on for eternity, and Shalnark was already praying to whatever gods out there that they struck him dead at that very instant so that he could be spared from that torment.

"…nark…" He heard a voice. It sounded so distant and like a breeze that for a fleeting moment he thought he was already a dead man.

"…Shalnark…" The voice said again, this time with a tinge of impatience in it. Shalnark frowned mentally. He recognised that voice.

"Shalnark. You better wake up now or I will stuff capsicums into your mouth. All three kinds of them."

That was all he needed to spur him awake.

* * *

With a scream of terror, Shalnark woke up from his unconsciousness—or rather sleep, as Kuroro had suspected before. He swatted away the hands that were holding him down. To be precise, those hands had actually been pinching his nose and clamping shut his mouth so that the young Spider was denied any air supply. The culprit, of course, had been none other than Kurapika.

"Finally!" Kurapika exclaimed in satisfaction, though there was still unhappiness in her voice.

"Kurapika! What the hell did you do to me?" Shalnark was half-screaming at Kurapika, the thought of capsicums stuffed into his mouth still haunting him mercilessly.

"I never knew that you dislike capsicums to that extent." Kuroro said in a snicker of amusement. He could not hold back a grin at seeing how flustered his Spider was at the mention of capsicum punishment.

"I _HATE_ them!" Shalnark said in a whiny voice that sounded like a child being forced to swallow fish oil. He then turned to regard Kurapika with accusing eyes. "And how did you find out?"

Kurapika shrugged noncommittally. "Fino."

"I should have known." Shalnark muttered vehemently under his breath.

"Capsicums aside," Kurapika said firmly while waving an impatient hand, "what happened? Where is Meta?"

Shalnark's heart skipped a beat, and he almost could not look at Kurapika in the eyes. He did not dare to face the unforgiving look that the Kuruta was likely to sport right at that moment. With his head ducked low, he recounted of the fight with Hisoka and how Hisoka had run after the little boy into the grove.

"How did you stop the bleeding?" Kuroro inquired, though he had his own guess on the matter. Nonetheless, he wanted to hear it right from Shalnark's own mouth.

Shalnark frowned in a disturbed manner. He had never known how it exactly happened. The only thing he vaguely remembered after the fight was lying in the pool of his own blood; bleeding to death with a card grossly embedded inside his stomach. After a while of sifting through the vague memories, he also remembered the pair of bare feet with dark ochre skin approaching him from somewhere else. He remembered the words of the owner of those feet—though strangely he could not remember the voice itself—after the stranger had done something with his gutted stomach and before he left.

"_Tell Kuroro that I won't be returning the boy unless he comes to me for him."_

He thought he saw strands of platinum gold hair before he blacked out.

After hearing Shalnark's story, Kurapika threw a tentative glance at Kuroro. The said man was donning a look of indifference as per usual, but there was a slight crease between his eyebrows. His lips were tightly shut and his eyes were narrowed ever so slightly. Several seconds later, a mumble escaped his mouth.

"Anansi."

* * *

"Anansi!" A certain jet-black haired man with grey eyes exclaimed with undisguised surprise in his voice.

Responding to his name, Anansi turned around slowly and gracefully so that he fully faced the young vampire count. A thin smile was plastered on his grim face, and both of his arms were occupied with a certain precious 'cargo'. Currently, that 'cargo' was sleeping blissfully, unaware of the vampire's arrival.

"Ah, it's been a while, Lucian. What brings you here?" The spider incarnation said with soft voice.

"_Care ar trebui să fie linia mea!_ (That should be my line) What are _you_ doing here? You _don't_ go to crowded place." Lucian demanded with accusing tone. When his attention landed on a sleeping blond boy in the ochre-skinned man's arms, he frowned deeply. "And what are you doing with _him_?"

"Ah… Isn't he the most adorable thing on earth?" Anansi said with a low chuckle as he looked at the boy with a loving gaze that seemed so out of place in his grim visage.

"He certainly is, but you haven't answered my question." Lucian responded dryly.

"Well, you see…" Anansi took one step aside to reveal a prone figure sprawled on the dirty ground. "I just couldn't stand bullies."

"…" Lucian stared at the motionless figure for a while, sniffing at the air noiselessly to check for any trace of blood. There was none, but… "Did you kill him?"

"Of course not." Anansi said with a snort of indignation, as if the thought of dirtying his hands with human's blood was repulsive for him. "I just 'sedated' him."

"Yeah, right. Of course. _Sedated_." Lucian muttered while rolling his eyes. Not bothering himself to check whether the man on the ground was really alive or not, Lucian continued with his interrogation. "What exactly happened?"

Anansi gave one uncaring shrug, but he told Lucian of what had occurred just a few minutes back.

xXx

Lucian had been right—he did _not_ go to places overridden with humans if he could help it. It was not like he loathed the humans; he simply preferred being alone and undisturbed by those more-often-than-not meddlesome creatures. The reason that he had entered the metropolitan city was precisely Meta himself. When Hisoka picked a fight with Shalnark, he had just arrived at the scene.

He had been curious to see what would happen. He did not know Hisoka, but he did know Shalnark. Even at one glance, he knew that Shalnark would lose. Nevertheless, he made no move to assist the young Spider, and made no initiative to actively help Meta when he had been running away from the deranged jester. He simply wanted to see what would happen.

His stand changed when he heard the boy crying out for his parents in despair. The next thing he knew, he had shot his paralyzing spider webs at Hisoka. Those webs had shot past Meta and headed straight towards Hisoka. Anansi was not a human—he never was—and so his aura was not something that ordinary humans would notice except when he deliberately let them be aware of his presence. Apparently, Hisoka turned out to be not just some 'ordinary humans'.

It was true that he had not physically seen the 'mythical' spider webs shooting towards him, but he had sensed it. Dodging it by hair's breadth by jumping out of the webs' course, Hisoka landed on the ground with a look of confusion on his face. It was not so often that his primal instinct had screamed at him to dodge an invisible attack.

Looking around the vicinity warily, he noticed that the boy had stopped running as well. Meta had felt the spider webs shooting past him. Thinking that there was another enemy right in his way, the blond boy had stopped in his track and was literally soaked in dread. His horror, however, dissolved as Anansi stepped out of the embrace of the darkness of the copse before Meta.

Now Meta here did not know Anansi. He had never seen the man before. He had never heard Kurapika mentioning him before, nor did he hear anything about the spider incarnation from Kuroro. The reason why he had relaxed was because the presence that had been lingering in his mind the past few years had tensed down.

_**Anansi…**_The feminine voice at the back of his mind whispered in relief. Trusting Ishtar, Meta knew that his 'saviour' had arrived.

"Who are you?" Hisoka had demanded with wariness dripping in his voice, yet at the same time there was a newfound excitement inside him. To think that he had not been able to see his attack just a moment before, it would only mean that the man before him was ridiculously skilled.

_Ohoho~~ What a day!_ Hisoka had thought. He never thought he would find such good entertainments in one day.

Ignoring Hisoka, Anansi reached out at Meta and the little boy gladly scurried over towards him. Silently, Anansi began checking for any injuries on the boy. Unhappy that he was being left out, Hisoka threw a card at him. Without even so much as sparing a glance at him, Anansi caught the card with such ease as if the card had drifted towards him instead of shooting like bullet. Carelessly, Anansi got rid of the card with a flick of his wrist. When he was satisfied to find the boy unblemished, only then he turned to fully regard Hisoka.

"You know," he started with voice deliberately slow and therefore effectively emphasising whatever point he was about to state, "I have always found people who bully younger and weaker people despicable."

Hisoka raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"And I find people who rudely interrupt others' entertainment irksome." He responded back to the silver-haired man with dark ochre skin.

Anansi made an uncaring shrug; completely disinterested with what Hisoka implied about himself.

"I would appreciate it if you stay away from this little man," he touched Meta's golden crown of hair with the tip of his delicate fingers, "for indefinite period of time."

The jester pursed his lips unhappily, but a sadistic grin quickly claimed its place on his pale face.

"Only if you can entertain me in his place." He said while licking his lips hungrily.

Anansi raised one eyebrow in a questioning manner, but this gesture was in response to Hisoka's conditional statement rather than his suggestive lip-smacking gesture.

"I doubt that this little guy is anything entertaining to you." He remarked, and added, "at least in terms of combative skill."

"Oh, but if my suspicion about his parentage is true, then he may be one of the most deliciously unripe fruits I have ever found." Hisoka cocked his head sideways while gazing at the cowering boy with an animalistic light in his eyes.

"His parentage? What do you know of it?" Anansi inquired while folding his arms across his bare chest.

"Well…" Hisoka conjured a card seemingly out of thin air and began twirling it most skilfully with one hand. "I don't think it concerns any of us for now."

Then, without any warnings, Hisoka lunged at the unprepared spider incarnation. Not exactly built for combat—unlike Ishtar—Anansi made quite bold and rather unprofessional moves in dodging Hisoka. Still, considering that it was not in his nature for aggression, it was a miracle that he managed to survive the succession of Hisoka's attacks. He even had the time to shove Meta out of the way.

After stumbling most unceremoniously into the nearby bushes; the sharp leaves cutting through his thin skin, Meta clambered to his feet and poked his head out of the bushes to spy at the ensuing fight. He was getting used to it then—of getting involved in some fights where people were trying to rip each other's head off their respective shoulders. Not a good sign.

_**Don't follow their example, okay? **_Ishtar said to him, but it almost sounded joking.

"Mom won't like it anyway…" Meta muttered vaguely as his dark-blue eyes were fixed at the routine of deadly dance.

The four-years-old was _studying_ the fight.

More than the fierce fight that was taking place among the crowds of trees, the sight of a four-years-old little boy studying the fight was the most unerring and unsettling of all. Knowing this, Ishtar gave a low chuckle of amusement.

_**The apple never falls far from the tree, I guess. **_She muttered as she observed the little boy. _**Especially when inherited from both parents.**_

Her concentration on the little boy was cut off when the boy gave a startled cry of anguish. Knowing that the cause was the fight, Ishtar averted her attention to the ensuing fight and found Anansi being decapitated by Hisoka. His head sailed through the air in one smooth arc, before landing almost soundlessly on the forest floor—conveniently near the bush where Meta was hiding in.

Hisoka let out a huff that sounded disturbingly satisfied. His face sported the expression of gratification and he looked like he simply wanted more of it. A light of excitement flashed through his eyes as he noticed that Anansi's headless body had not dropped dead to the floor. It remained standing still; having only staggered for a second after his head was cut off in one clean cut of his razor-sharp card. As long as he could entertain him with good fight, Hisoka did not really care whether he was a freak of nature or whatever else.

"What are you?" He asked with voice soaked in twisted wonderment.

_**Again? That good for nothing…**_ Ishtar sighed exasperatedly.

She looked at Meta again, but soon she noticed that the boy did not bear the expression of dread like how children his age would normally wear when they witnessed someone being beheaded. If anything, he only had a look of surprised—much alike when he was surprised by a "Boo!"—but nothing else. He seemed unperturbed or even distraught by the sight of a head rolling on the ground.

A feeling of cold familiarity rose in her soul. She knew what was happening to Meta. He was so much like his father; his psychological 'disorder'—the conscience deficit in the matter of death.

_**Oh dear…**_ She whispered to herself. _**Kurapika will be very upset if she finds out later.**_

xXx

"You got your head chopped off again?" Lucian remarked with a frown etched between his eyebrows. "You are such a lousy fighter, do you know that?"

"Thank you for stating it out loud and crystal-clear." Anansi said with a dry, sarcastic laugh.

"You're welcome." The vampire said with a lopsided smirk. "So anyway, how did you get rid of him?" He asked while jerking his head at the motionless body of a very-much-alive-yet-just-unconscious man on the ground.

"Injected him with my poison." He said with a duh-isn't-it-so-obvious tone in his voice.

Getting more prudent once he was decapitated—he knew that he would not be able to protect the boy properly with his head lying somewhere else—he had summoned forth his ten spider legs that extended from his back and restrained the very-much-shocked-upon-seeing-spider-legs-spourting-from-someone's-back Hisoka. Before the jester could have the time to react accordingly to escape his grip, one of his spider legs had been jabbed into the nape of his neck—just enough so that he could inject his poison into his system and not deep enough to cut through his thick neck. Hisoka had collapsed in no time then.

"The dose was enough to permanently paralyze an average normal human, but it seems he has endurance far beyond that of our average normal human." He turned to give a fleeting glance at Hisoka's unconscious body.

"Hmm…" Lucian hummed while staring at the paralyzed Hisoka disinterestedly. "Well, _cred ca nu e de mirare_ (I guess it's little wonder). He was Lucifer's Spiders, after all."

Anansi simply shrugged with no-care-to-the-world attitude. Whatever the man's identity was, he did not give a damn. He looked at the frail body of the little boy in his arms—a boy that looked so much like his mother yet inherited some essential characters from his father. He seemed to fit perfectly in the description of 'more than meets the eyes'.

He remembered vividly Kuroro's expression years ago when he witnessed him getting decapitated in their first meeting. He had looked surprised, yes. He had looked distraught by the whole ordeal of getting attacked by a wild werewolf, yes. He had been traumatised and terror-stricken after seeing him getting beheaded, no. He was unfazed by that concept.

He remembered freshly Meta's reaction towards him getting his head chopped off. He was startled yes. He was distressed by seeing his bloody head laying just a few metres away from him, no. If anything, the boy had bolted out of the bushes and secured his head in his little fragile arms. It was almost a hilarious scene for him. The boy had attempted to protect his head from Hisoka! He wanted to laugh at the irony of it.

Nonetheless, his head had told him to "Relax, no worries here, dear."—with which Meta responded with a yelp of surprise upon hearing the head talking to him. Afterwards, he had taken the initiative to get rid of Hisoka as soon as possible since the little golden bird had decided to reveal himself to the hungry predator.

"So…" Lucian started.

Anansi looked up and found the vampire looking at him with critical eyes.

"What are you going to do now?"

The spider incarnation gave a lopsided smirk.

* * *

"What are you waiting for? Contact him!" Kurapika demanded harshly.

"Easier said than done." Kuroro said deadpan. "I don't know how to contact him."

"WHAT?" She exclaimed with shrill voice that made Shalnark flinch while Kuroro still managed to put a straight face. "But isn't he—"

"He is NOT my father." Kuroro stated pointedly. "And I have never had the need to contact him before."

Upon hearing this, Shalnark's eyes bulged out and they threatened to pop out of their sockets. He had never heard of Anansi before, he really had no clue whatsoever about who this Anansi person was, and now suddenly he was bombarded with talk about "he is not my father". What was going on? Shalnark's face was the illustration of utter cluelessness, but none of the arguing couple seemed to pay any heed to him. Poor guy.

"Because you've never bothered to." She said accusingly.

"Why should I?" He countered.

"He brought you up together with Ishtar." She reminded him, but he snorted mockingly.

"Did he?"

"Oh, you are impossible!" Kurapika stomped her foot angrily. "You are taking everything for granted!"

Kuroro's heart missed a beat. That was the thought he had when Ishtar died in his hand five years ago. He only realised that when Ishtar was gone. Was he doing the same thing again, this time with Anansi?

"We are digressing." He stated coldly to mask the slight agitation that rose in a fleeting moment in his heart—and the doubt that accompanied it.

"Oh right. Yes of course we are." Kurapika muttered under her breath vehemently while rolling her eyes, feeling very cross by Kuroro's attitude. The nerve of that man! "How do we find Anansi then? Seek out those 'creatures' and find information from them?"

"That is one option."

Kurapika gave him a dirty look.

"Hell no! I have had enough of dealing with those, those…" She had wanted to say 'monsters', but it would seem to be so derogatory and nasty. In the end, she had to settle with "…anomalies."

"Not even Chiron?" Kuroro challenged with one eyebrow raised. Chiron was famous for his wisdom, after all. "Or even Una?"

Upon hearing the unicorn's name being mentioned, Kurapika let out a sharp gasp that almost startled both men in the room.

"Una! I completely forgot about her!"

"What's with her?" Kuroro narrowed his eyes.

He did not know of Una staying with Kurapika. He had assumed that they would part ways after the whole journey-across-the-world-in-search-of-the-Scarlet-Eyes. It might seem cold-hearted of him, but that was the kind of person he was—completely detached from the mundane world except for a few exclusive cases.

"She is supposed to catch up with me. We can try asking her!" She said while turning on her heels and ready to dash for the door when Kuroro—again—had to grab her arms to prevent from running off without any explanations.

"Catch up with you? To Yorkshin City? She can't enter human domain."

Kurapika let out a deliberate groan of exasperation. She really did not feel like explaining things to him. It felt too tedious and such a waste of what precious little time they had right now. Kuroro did not like it. He was missing some crucial information from Kurapika's side. Why would Una be catching up with her to Yorkshin City? What had happened before? He wanted—or rather, needed—to know, but he knew very well that if he tried to pry the information from Kurapika, she would yell a grand "Mind your own business!" at him.

For once, he felt like he was missing so many things in life.

"Let's just find Una first!" She hissed impatiently as she tried to wrench her arms off his hands. "And hands off!"

In defiance, Kuroro tightened his grip around her arm, making her flinch slightly in pain. Irked, Kurapika spun her head to his direction to give him a death glare, but upon seeing the unhappy look in his obsidian eyes, the scathing remark she had prepared to unleash died off at the tip of her tongue. Somehow, that expression made her feel slightly guilty. It was as if she had denied something that he had the right to know—which she believed he actually did not it.

They stared at each other for a few seconds that seemed to stretch forever—especially for Shalnark who seemed like he was getting in their way and wished that he could just slip out of the room like a wind. Sometimes, _he_ even felt embarrassed when seeing them interacting with each other so awkwardly. Honestly, sometimes he wished that they could just tie the knot and be done with all the hassles. Unfortunately, that ideal seemed to be rather far-fetched for those two.

"Let's save the lovers spat for later, shall we?" A familiar voice said from the direction of the door.

Kurapika and Kuroro turned to the source of the voice in such perfect synchronization that it made the newcomer—who notably possessed gypsum white skin, a pair of uncanny grey eyes and jet-black silky hair that was slightly past his shoulder—snorted in deep amusement. He quickly straightened his face into the serious mask once he noted the glare that a certain blonde was radiating towards him, though.

"Lucian." Kuroro addressed him. "What are you trying to say?"

The corner of his mouth twitched slightly upon hearing Kuroro's words. _Sharp as ever,_ he thought begrudgingly.

"Well, _ceea ce am încercat să spun este… _(what I'm trying to say is)" he drawled, "let's stop bickering and do something. Una should know where Anansi is taking Meta."

Kurapika's eyes widened at this information, while Kuroro frowned.

"How—"

"How do I know? I was there when Anansi ran off, taking Meta along."

"What makes you think that Una will know where they are headed to?" Kuroro asked with the frowns still etched between his eyebrows.

"Because," he paused to add more to the drama—which made Kurapika want to punch the light out of him—before finishing his sentence with: "he used the Fairy Ring."

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__I know, I know, I'm rambling here. My thoughts are scattered all over the place, but I tried to do my best in writing this chapter. Feels like everything stretch out so much, huh? Only several scenes for one chapter -_- The dreaded assessment week is just around the corner *shiver*_

_I think some of you might be thinking that I'm overestimating Meta too much, especially with the talking-to-ghosts and communicating-with-demons thingie, but it's just a speculation if you notice. I didn't explicitly mention that he was able to hear those demons for sure. It's just a teaser for you guys =P I think I should've warned you all before ^^_

_In case you have forgotten from 1001 Nights, Fairy Ring is a part of the Irish/Celtic legend revolving the faerie. It's kind of like a trans-dimensional portal that connects one Ring to others all over the country. It's a common occurrence for unfortunate traveller to stumble into one and get lost in the pathway._

_Title is 'Interference' because it's referring to Anansi's interference with the whole affair. He just loves to make things more complicated than they already are._

_Oh, and poor Shalnark. That is quite a nightmare he was having XP _

_And again, this chapter wasn't proof-read, so pardon the minor errors. If you're confused with anything, please review (with account) so I can explain things to u if necessary. _

_**Next: **__So they gained new piece information: that Meta was safe from Hisoka's clutch and was now in Anansi's custody. Their next quest: finding out where Anansi was. However, it seemed that Anansi would not make it an easy thing to do, since he did imply that "if you want him back, come and get him from me."_


	10. Chapter 8: Reason

_**Disclaimer: **__Still not mine._

_**Story so far:**__ Kurapika couldn't detect Meta's presence with her Dowsing Chain, but Lucian testified that Anansi had spirited the boy away via the Fairy Ring. What would they do now? Lucian suggested that they asked Una about it, but would the Unicorn really know anything at all?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 8**

_**REASON**_

_**

* * *

**_

_"Let's save the lovers spat for later, shall we?" A familiar voice said from the direction of the door._

_Kurapika and Kuroro turned to the source of the voice in such perfect synchronization that it made the newcomer—who notably possessed gypsum white skin, a pair of uncanny grey eyes and jet-black silky hair that was slightly past his shoulder—snorted in deep amusement. He quickly straightened his face into the serious mask once he noted the glare that a certain blonde was radiating towards him, though._

_"Lucian." Kuroro addressed him. "What are you trying to say?"_

_The corner of his mouth twitched slightly upon hearing Kuroro's words.__Sharp as ever,__he thought begrudgingly._

_"Well,__ceea ce am încercat să spun este…__(what I'm trying to say is)" he drawled, "let's stop bickering and do something. Una should know where Anansi is taking Meta."_

_Kurapika's eyes widened at this information, while Kuroro frowned._

_"How—"_

_"How do I know? I was there when Anansi ran off, taking Meta along."_

_"What makes you think that Una will know where they are headed to?" Kuroro asked with the frowns still etched between his eyebrows._

_"Because," he paused to add more to the drama—which made Kurapika want to punch the light out of him—before finishing his sentence with: "he used the Fairy Ring."_

_

* * *

_

The place was dark and cold. 'Place' would not be an accurate description, since it had no dimension. It was simply a void space, almost like a vacuum. The only source of light in that 'vacuum' was the glints of the silvery threads that were criss-crossing into certain patterns that bore particular meanings only known to the weaver of those patterns. There were thousands of patterns scattered all over the void space, and one of those patterns resembled what would be discern as the centre of the layout of those patterns—the 'throne'.

A lone man—the weaver—sat on that 'throne', with a small figure curling next to him just as comfortably as if he was sleeping on a bed. The man's platinum gold hair shone like pale ember, while the sleeping boy's hair shone like a solitary beacon amidst the impenetrable darkness.

The void space was a dimension created by that man. It was a place where the unreal could be the real and vice-versa. It was a place where existences depended on the man's own state of mind.

"Why have you brought Meta here, Anansi?" A voice—one that was rightfully belonged to the unreal—spoke so softly that it sounded like a passing breeze in the unmoving darkness. Not only that the voice had materialised into reality, but the body had been manifested into solid form—all courtesy to Anansi's mind prowess and the extent of his own 'power'.

Anansi, the 'God' of the void space, did not answer and instead he observed silently as Ishtar stroke Meta's golden crown of hair gently as how she did to Kurapika years back. The answer to Ishtar's question had been simple: because he wanted to see her, to speak with her. The only way for him to achieve that was to bring Meta into his realm. Unfortunate average humans who stumbled into that void space would have lost themselves—destroyed into nothingness—in that world created from the projection of his essence, but Meta had been invited by him. While it was a place where the boundary between the real and the unreal was blurred, it was a child play for Anansi to retain Meta's existence as the real in that realm.

"Ishtar," he finally spoke after a long time, "I'm seeing the making of Kuroro Lucifer all over again. What are you trying to do?"

There was no response forthcoming, but Anansi could sense that his statement had shocked Ishtar speechless. Ishtar seemed to have frozen on the spot. It was not her intention then, Anansi decided. He offered his other guess.

"Or are you trying to make-up for what you have not done for Kuroro?"

Still there was no response coming from Ishtar. Anansi waited patiently, knowing that Ishtar would give him her reason behind sticking with Meta for so long. She was under no obligation to do that.

"I…" she started; hesitating for a moment but eventually let the words flowed from her mouth smoothly, "I just want to help answer his prayer…"

"Prayer?"

"Three years ago…I went to check on the two of them. To be honest, I was quite disappointed by how things had turned out. When I saw Meta for the first time…"

Ishtar looked at the sleeping boy with a tender look—as tender as her ghostly appearance could afford.

"He could see me. And he hadn't cried." A small smile tugged at her lips. "In fact, he even reached out to me."

"And then you were compelled to stay by his side?"

"Not quite, no." Ishtar shook her head. "When I touched him with this hand," she lifted up her hand, now no longer semi-transparent, "I could get in touch with his feelings and minds. I could read his mind. I don't know whether it's something that I can do with any other humans or not, but I have never bothered to try. Or perhaps it was really his innate empathic ability."

"You never bother to try because Meta is all that matters to you."

Ishtar nodded at Anansi's hypotheses. She closed her eyes and recalled the day that she first came into contact with Meta.

xXx

It was a very early morning, with the sun barely peeking out of the horizon. Ishtar floated into the inn effortlessly; her immaterial body passing through the concrete wall and through the furniture. She had sensed Kurapika's presence in this particular inn in a town that was residing in the middle of a remote mountain, though she had not bothered to look at the name of the inn. She glanced around the bedroom in which she had detected lingering presence of the Kuruta. The room was different from the other rooms in the inn, Ishtar noticed, as if it was furnished to cater for a certain function. It was tidy and neat, very much organised and structured—just like the kind of personality that Kurapika had.

She scanned the bedroom fleetingly. After a while, she found herself appalled by the realization that the room was furnished for exactly two people: for one adult and one child.

_**What has Kuroro been doing?**_ She wondered with slight irritation.

Ishtar had hoped that they would somehow be together—one way or another—after all those that had transpired between them. But NO! They had to stubbornly cling to their blind conviction that they were supposed to stay away from each other. Those hopeless dunderheads…

A cry of an infant grabbed Ishtar's attention almost instantly. Her line of sight was diverted towards the veiled mini-sized bed with fences around it—which she had no idea was called a crib. She then wondered where Kurapika was. From the looks of the tidy bed, Kurapika had been up since long time ago—or she had not even slept at all. Ishtar figured that the moment she heard the baby's cry, she would have bolted towards him like there was no tomorrow. Of course she knew that the baby was Kurapika's—she was no idiot after all. She would not be too surprised to find Kurapika an overprotective mother. Her circumstances compelled her to be just so. After all, the infant would be the seed of the new Kuruta clan.

The baby's cry grew louder with each passing second. Ishtar had not understood the language of baby, much less interpreting the meaning of a baby's cry. She had heard that a mother would always understand why her baby cried. Curious, Ishtar floated just above the crib; her upper body leaning over the structure so that she could get a good look of the baby.

She had not been surprised to see the thin blond hair that was shrouding the baby's still-relatively-bald head. She had been surprised, though, by how the baby stopped crying the moment she leaned over the crib to look at him. She was turned speechless when the baby started giggling while staring at her with those soulful deep sapphire blue eyes—they were inherited from the father; she was sure of it as she happily concluded that the father really was Kuroro Lucifer.

Something within her twisted and the next thing she knew she was already extending her ghostly hand towards the infant. The baby reached to her as well, much to her delight. It was the first time that a human ever responded to her presence—not that she had ever wanted them to, though. Unexpectedly, her hand could touch the baby's hand. The moment the contact was made, she felt tendrils of something warm coursed through her cold, immaterial being. She heard a voice coming from that warmth—a kind of warmth that could only be described as pure and pristine.

_Daddy where?_

Ishtar's eyes went wide. It took her several seconds for the question to be registered to her mind. A sad look then took charge of her expression, and she whispered to the baby in the most comforting way she could:

_**Your father is not here. But your mother is,**_ she said while squeezing the baby's small hand lightly.

_Mommy always here. Daddy never. Daddy where?_ The baby asked again, his eyes searching for answer in Ishtar's abysmal eyes.

_**One year old, and you are already this perceptive. **_Ishtar commented somewhat amusedly while her eyes were still studying the baby's facial feature.

_Daddy where? _The infant asked again.

_**Away, sweetheart. Away and never here, just like what you told me.**_ Ishtar said while stroking the baby's smooth skin with her thumb.

_See Daddy. I want. _

Ishtar felt as if her heart—or what she could discern as her heart, since she was a ghost and she doubted that ghosts had any hearts anyway—was pinched and she almost cringed in pain.

_**Then you have to convince your mother, **_she whispered to him.

The boy then did just as he was told. In attempt to gain his mother's attention, the infant hollered out loud. It took Ishtar by surprise since the baby gave out such startling cry without any prior warnings. Such powerful lungs! Frantic footsteps then could be heard coming from the hallway, and in record time the bedroom door was flung open and storming in was Kurapika in her dishevelled appearance. To Ishtar, it seemed that the young mother had fallen asleep on her working desk, and she was so thin…

"Meta? What's wrong?"

Picking up the baby—whose name now Ishtar knew as Meta—Kurapika cradled him close to her bosoms and rocked him lightly. Isthar almost could not believe the sight; Kurapika being a very gentle young woman, while she always had the impression of her as a spitfire or the likes. Motherhood was really something absolutely life-changing.

Ishtar observed as Kurapika tried to calm the agitated baby in her arms. She tried to sing some nursery rhymes to the baby, but he would not calm down. He only started to lower his volume when she recited the Kuruta Prayer in a sing-song manner.

_Sun in the sky, trees upon the ground._

_Our bodies are from the Earth, our souls come from the Heavens above._

_The Sun and the Moon shed light on our hands and feet._

_The nature rejuvenates our bodies,_

_Sends our bodies to the Wind that blows across the plains._

_Give thanks to the Gods who abode in Heavens for the land of the Kuruta._

_Let our spirits live in everlasting vigour and protection._

_I seek to be capable of sharing the mirth with my people,_

_To be capable of sharing their sorrows._

_Offer homage to the people of the Kuruta Tribe, _

_Let our blazing Scarlet Eyes bear witness…_

By the end of the last verse, Meta had completely turned silent, observing his mother's face with his big eyes that were blazing scarlet. Kurapika let out a silent gasp when she saw it—it was the first time that the infant's eyes turned scarlet. She studied those eyes for the longest time, until she finally allowed herself to liberate a few drops of tears.

"You are a Kuruta…" She whispered to the baby, her voice undoubtedly joyful.

Taking a deep breath of profound relief—a feeling of deliverance because she now knew that the bloodline of the Kuruta Tribe would be preserved—Kurapika hugged the baby in her arms in the tightest embrace she could afford without hurting the still-frail little man.

"You are a Kuruta…" She repeated with slightly tremulous voice.

Ignoring his mother's joy, the baby wriggled in her arms; ultimately causing Kurapika to release the embrace and to peer at the restless baby's face. She found the baby frowning, but to her it almost seemed amusing. With the light crease across his forehead, Meta reached out towards Kurapika's face—or to be precise, her neck.

"What is it?" Kurapika asked, curious. He had never acted this way before.

Letting out a frustrated whine, the baby seemed to be making a gesture at Kurapika so that she bent over her head towards him. Still unsure on what he was trying to tell her, Kurapika tried to lower her face towards him. Once she seemed to be within the reach of his tiny hands, Meta quickly grabbed the metal chain that was encircling Kurapika's neck. Then, before Kurapika could respond, the baby pulled at the chain with such force that Kurapika was dumbstruck—it was a kind of strength that was spurred solely by his willpower.

The metal chain stumbled out of her shirt, leaving the pendant to be completely exposed. The pendant was a ring made of brass and iron; adorned with carving of ancient languages and alphabets, and a conspicuous golden symbol of the Star of David as the focal point of the ring. With eagerness that Kurapika had never seen coming from the baby before, Meta reached out for the ring. Kurapika did nothing to prevent the baby from snatching the ring with his little hands and started tugging it towards him, as if trying to take it away from her.

Ishtar frowned when she spotted the Solomon Ring. Truthfully, one of the reasons why she had gone to check on Kurapika first was because she felt the presence of that abominable ring near Kurapika. She was doubtful at first, but now her suspicion had been confirmed—Kuroro had left the ring in Kurapika's care. She did not understand the rationale behind it. Even if she was to be told of Kuroro's reasoning, she would still not understand why Kuroro would be doubtful of himself—that he would fear losing to those demons' Dark Whispers.

"Do you want it?" Kurapika asked with small voice as she undid the necklace deftly with one hand.

As the ring spilled fully into the infant's hand; chains and all, Meta let out a soft giggle of satisfaction. His Scarlet Eyes had reverted back to their normal deep sapphire hue then. He clutched the ring tightly in his tiny fist, holding it close to his chest. Seeing this, Kurapika could not help but to let out a sad smile.

"You really are your father's son."

Since then, Meta had always kept the ring with him—until the day he was kidnapped and spirited away to Yorkshin City.

xXx

Anansi frowned as Ishtar finished with the short recount of her first encounter with Meta.

"Is the boy able to hear the Dark Whispers?"

Ishtar shook her head, much to Anansi's relief.

"No," she muttered without diverting her attention from the sleeping boy, "at least, not yet."

"Not yet?" Anansi narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

"Those greedy demons are not interested with innocent souls like Meta. He is still too young to harbour any dark thoughts."

"But as he grows up…" Anansi never finished his own sentence.

"We can never know." Ishtar whispered quietly.

Silence fell between them, filling the void space with comfortable silence as the man observed the woman and the little boy while the woman continued caressing the boy's golden mop of hair.

"So," Anansi spoke up again.

"Hmm?" Ishtar hummed vaguely.

"What is his prayer? To see his father?"

Ishtar chuckled softly. "Partially true."

"Then?"

"He simply wishes to see his parents be together," she answered, but then looked up from Meta and gazed into Anansi's beady eyes. Abysmal black eyes met with glassy, almost faceted eyes with indefinite colour.

"However," she continued with solemn voice, "sometimes, the simplest wish can be the hardest one to realise."

* * *

"Una! You are really here!" Kurapika exclaimed jubilantly as she made her way quickly towards the approaching black-horned Unicorn.

_Una keeps her promise,_ the Unicorn stated as she let the Kuruta stroke her mane smoothly. She then turned her attention to Kuroro; who was standing not far away but with a stunned expression on his face. Following a few paces behind him was Lucian; who seemed like he had been forced to come with them all the way to the outskirt of the forestry surrounding the metropolitan city, with his face downcast.

"Your horn." Kuroro started.

"I'm to blame for that." Kurapika hastily said with small voice. "Because she touched me."

"Ah…" He simply muttered as understanding dawned to him. _So this is what happens when a Unicorn touches a non-virgin. Interesting._

Kuroro approached Una, a feeling of distant acquaintanceship coming back to him. While Una had accompanied them in half of their 'journey across the world in search of the Scarlet Eyes', his so-called attachment to the mythical creature had not been deep—at least not as deep as the bond shared between him and a certain quick-tempered Kuruta. Nevertheless, he greeted the Unicorn by stroking her cheek and nose smoothly while the Unicorn herself sniffed at him softly.

_Where's Meta?_ Una asked curiously after she detached herself from Kuroro and with her eyes searching to all direction for her favourite little fellow.

Kurapika gulped hard upon hearing this dreaded question, before she finally resigned herself to briefly relayed the outline of the chain of events that had taken place; starting from how Meta had ended up in Yorkshin City—as told by Kuroro—and how the same boy had ended up missing again.

"And so according to _him_," Kurapika said pointedly as she shot a glare at a certain vampire, "Anansi took Meta along into the Fairy Ring, and that you should be able to help us, one way or another."

_Ah…_ Una's voice sounded unsure. _Well, Una is not too sure about that. It's true that the Faerie Realm was Una's original home, but…_

Kurapika and Kuroro exchanged a quick glance. Both still remembered the small talk that took place during one of those campsite nights. She had told them how she had been disowned by her own Tribe simply because of who her father was. Driven away from the Faerie Realm, Una had been taken in by Chiron the Centaur and she had spent the majority of her foal days there peacefully—the rest of it had been spent on the journey with Kuroro and Kurapika.

"Let's just give it a shot." Kuroro finally declared after a while of silence, and then he turned to Lucian. "You lead the way."

The vampire gave a yelp of surprise, as if he was a dog whose tail had been stepped on. His face showed blatantly the "Why me?" question.

"Take us to where you saw Anansi using the Fairy Ring." Kurapika clarified, her hands akimbo and her expression showing that she was not taking any "No" as an answer.

Gulping hard, Lucian could only comply. And so, with head bowed low, he turned to lead them to the exact place where the fight between Hisoka and Anansi had taken place. When they got there, Hisoka's body was gone and Lucian made no effort to mention about the mad jester at all. Instead, he only pointed to the cluster of tree in certain direction.

"Around that area, suddenly there's this shiny ring on the ground and when Anansi stepped into the circle, he simply vanished while enveloped in blinding white light." Lucian described to them. All the while, he never tore his gaze from a certain spot on the ground where he was pointing at.

"What say you, Una?" Kuroro turned to the Unicorn for advice.

_That sure is the description that matches how the Fairy Ring works, _she simply stated. Like Lucian, she was staring at the same spot as the vampire was staring.

Both Kuroro and Kurapika exchanged quick glance. They noticed their stare towards a certain common direction and spot. In mutual agreement, they both advanced towards the point which had been stared at by the vampire and the unicorn for quite some time.

"Is this the spot?" Kurapika asked, rather impatiently, while stepping at that particular spot on the ground.

Before any of the two non-human creatures could respond, the ground began the glow. At first it was very dim and faint, but the intensity of the glow skyrocketed in no time and soon enough both Kuroro and Kurapika—who had been standing very close to each other—were completely engulfed in that strange light. The light was not white, yet it did not give off any distinct colour. It was a kind of otherworldly light that could hardly be described by worldly vocabularies. The blinding light died off as fast as how it had appeared. When the light receded and finally was extinguished, both humans were nowhere to be found.

A short silence fell between the Unicorn and the vampire. They had hardly spent any quality time before, so it was understandably awkward between them.

"You weren't telling them everything, were you?" Lucian finally asked while he was still staring at the same spot.

_And you lied to them._ Una challenged him back. She turned her head to gaze at him questioningly. _The Fairy Rings are only scattered all around the Erin Continent. There is no way that Anansi can access the Fairy Ring from this place. _

"If you know that, why didn't you tell them before?"

_Una doesn't think that will be a good thing to do…_ She paused, before adding, _considering that you are under surveillance. _

"You do notice?" Lucian sounded genuinely surprised.

_Una is surprised that those two did not notice it, _the Unicorn said softly as she approached the vampire to get a good look at the tiny-almost-miniscule spider perching on Lucian's shoulder. Lucian was wearing a studded shirt, so the spider could easily be mistaken as one of the decorative studs.

"I guess they were too preoccupied with Meta in minds to notice this kind of trivial detail." Lucian sighed.

_Are they getting along well?_ The Unicorn asked; concern very obvious in her tone.

Lucian could only shrug an "I don't know either."

_So where did Anansi take Meta to?_

"I honestly have no idea. _La naiba_ (dammit), he forced me to lure them here so his magic—or whatever else he called it, I can't really remember—could transport them somewhere else. _Cine ştie?_ (who knows?) He even threatened me that if I leaked his plan to them, he'd have this stupid spider bite me to death." He turned his grey eyes to the tiny spider and practically barked at it: "Now off you go, you silly little thing!"

The spider stayed on his shoulder for several more minutes—much to the vampire's dismay—but eventually he hopped down from his shoulder and scurried away into the darkness of the forest. Letting out an irritated "Hmph!", Lucian then turned to the Unicorn and scrutinised her for a while.

"So…Why did you not tell them all the truth?"

_Una just had the feeling that Una shouldn't say too much. For their own good._ If a Unicorn could shrug, she would have shrugged most casually.

"Hmm…" Lucian hummed while diverting his attention back to the spot where Kuroro and Kurapika had been dramatically spirited away. "Whatever Anansi's plan for them is, I just hope that they can really use this opportunity to come to terms with each other and settle everything." He paused thoughtfully, before hastily adding: "Peacefully."

Una gave a soft snort and muttered: _Touché._

_

* * *

_

It felt like riding a roller-coaster ride, or even worse. Their stomach lurched uncomfortably; the content within threatening to force their way out, but both of them kept their cool in check. Nonetheless, keeping the equilibrium sense of balance was no easy task—not with the dimension of the space distorted to the extent where they could no longer discern up and down, left and right.

After a few nerve-wracking minutes of being tousled roughly in the rainbow-coloured passage of space and time, the kaleidoscope-like dimension was suddenly sucked into one spot. Powerless as they were, both Kurapika and Kuroro could do naught in preventing them from being sucked along into that 'black hole'.

Their travel through the 'black hole' only lasted for a fleeing milliseconds, before Kurapika found herself staring at the azure blue of a clear sky _above _her, while Kuroro found himself staring at the lush greeneries a good distance away _below_ him. Before they could properly process the meaning of everything, the law of gravity imposed its rule on them and they were quickly pulled towards the Earth.

Kurapika managed a gasp of surprise as something sharp grazed her cheek and arms. In no time, her view of the clear blue sky was obscured by browns and greens of the tree branches and leaves. Realizing that she was falling closer to the solid ground, she twisted her body in mid-air and found herself staring at the ground that seemed to be approaching her fast. She barely noticed Kuroro positioning himself upright as if he had deliberately jumped down, when she summoned forth her Nen chains.

Spreading them to all directions, Kurapika made sure that those chains wrapped themselves around the thick trunk of those trees around her before weaving them into a giant steely net for her to land on instead of the hard, solid ground below. When she landed on the chain net, she let out a gasp as her breath was slightly knocked out of her. It seemed that they had been falling from quite an altitude. Sprawling on the net for a while as her breath was catching up with her, she observed the surrounding. The forest seemed familiar enough, as if she had been there before.

"That was really something." Said a voice coming from below her.

Rolling her body to her side, Kurapika peered at the ground just below her. Kuroro was standing casually with his hands in his pockets, while around him was a thin mist of dusts that had been stirred up when he had landed on the ground legs first. Kurapika knew this, and she frowned jealously—she had yet to master that kind of skill; the very same one as President Netero had performed when he had jumped down from his blimp years ago during the Second Stage of the Hunter Examination.

"What was?" She asked, sounding calm as she made the Nen chain disappeared and she landed safely on the ground just next to him.

Instead of answering her, Kuroro regarded her with a look that she could not really discern. It was a mixture of amusement and irony, and something else.

"When you were up there," he finally said with very slight smile that made her frown, "you looked like a spider."

It quickly registered to her that he was referring to her laying on her Nen chain that she had weaved to prevent her falling flat onto the ground. Regardless, in a split second her eyes turned scarlet as an old sentiment stirred within her. Associating her with a spider! The nerve of that man! She was about to voice that thought out loud at him, when he added:

"Or rather, a butterfly trapped on a spider web?" A full-bloom smile graced his feature as he asked, "Which one would you prefer?"

Seeing that smile, it was as if she was snapped back to reality. She knew that smile. It was a smile that was always present whenever he intended to provoke her when he felt like it. With a nasty scowl directed at him, she calmed her boiling head in attempt to revert the colour of her eyes back to their normal aquamarine hue.

"None of them. So shut up." She responded snappishly, like a cat ready to bite any approaching hands.

Kuroro only shrugged at her crude respond, but nonetheless he was satisfied with himself for being able to provoke that Scarlet Eyes despite only for a fleeting moment. Inwardly, he missed those particular Scarlet Eyes—they were the most mesmerising ones he had ever seen up until that very moment. Even Meta's Scarlet Eyes could hardly begin to compare with hers.

_Speaking of which…_

"Do you know this place?" He asked her with neutral voice.

Kurapika scanned her surrounding briefly. "This place seems familiar, but…" She frowned deeply and turned to Kuroro. "That was _not_ the Fairy Ring, wasn't it?"

Her eyes; now in their oceanic blue hue, were looking straight into his obsidian eyes, daring him to answer her question. She knew that he ought to realize that as well, since they had once travelled through the Fairy Ring accompanied by Una, Ging, and Anansi. She still remembered the feeling of walking through the real Fairy Ring vividly, as if it was just yesterday.

"I'm positive that it was not." Kuroro shook his head slowly.

"Correct!" A third cheerful and mischievous voice; dreadfully familiar, suddenly reached their ears.

In a snap, both experienced fighters had their stances poised defensively—which was completely unnecessary, actually. However, in the first place their reaction was not born out of their wariness towards the unknown. If anything, exactly because they knew who the owner of the voice was that they became more wary than ever.

Standing before them was none other than Seiryuu in his full Shishin—the Four Celestial Guardian Beasts of the Four Compass Directions—glory. His deep azure attire glittering majestically, with the somewhat pompous dragon-motif headdress perching on his head, Seiryuu was still the same incorrigibly odd creature the two of them had always known—or at least since the last time they saw him and his other confreres about six years ago.

"Kurapika-chaaan! Still cute as ev—"

Kurapika bashed his face in with her fist when he lunged at her with his arms spread ominously in an embracing manner. Kuroro was about to chuckle in amusement upon seeing how flustered Kurapika was when she saw the dragon incarnation coming after her shamelessly, when suddenly he felt the hair on his nape raising.

"And you are still as handsome as ever, Kuroro-san~" Another dreadfully familiar voice spoke just behind him as a pair of sinewy hands were rested on his shoulders.

"It's been a while, Suzaku." Kuroro responded most coolly and composedly as he slithered out of the oriental phoenix's touch, although inwardly he was not as composed as it seemed on the outside.

"They are still the same." Suzaku commented as he observed Kurapika and Seiryuu—the former screaming at him for attempting to sexually harassed her while the latter yelling at her for attempting to murder him in the most grotesque manner.

"The same goes with the two of you." Kuroro responded with a soft snort.

"Although…" Suzaku turned on his heels to regard Kuroro and scrutinised him from head to toe. "Looks like you have managed to break the curse, no?"

"That, we did." Kuroro shrugged.

"Mmhmm…" The Phoenix nodded but with a knowing smile plastered on his effeminate face. "Then?"

Kuroro gave him a quizzical look, questioning him silently with a "What else do you want to know?"

"I presume something more happened, yes?"

"That is none of your business," said Kuroro coldly. He was about to turn away when he spotted something from Suzaku's demeanour. "In any case," he started cautiously, "it seems that you know more than I do about what is happening now."

"Do I?"

Kuroro frowned at him in a rather displeased manner, while at the same time trying to search for any clues from the mythical creature's eyes and body languages. Unfortunately, nothing about Suzaku betrayed any hints on what was going on, except for the unreserved excitement and anticipation in his golden eyes.

"It seems that we are purposely thrown here by Anansi's magic." Kurapika suddenly chimed in from his side.

When Kuroro turned to look at her, she had a victorious look on her face while Seiryuu sported a most dejected look on his face—as if he had just lost a game or a bet. Kuroro then suspected that the Kuruta had somehow threatened the dragon incarnation out of his wit that he spilled out the beans. It was proven right when Suzaku gave a reprimanding look at Seiryuu.

"What else did you manage to dig out from him?"

"You sound as if I've tortured him to get the answers." Kurapika shot him a mild glare.

"Oh, but didn't you?"

"Shut up." She said with a scowl.

Kuroro only chuckled softly, but nonetheless asked again: "So what did he say?"

"Like I said, Anansi made us come here through the magic portal or whatever else it's called. Looks like Lucian was made to trick us. What I don't understand is why Una said nothing about the portal not being a Fairy Ring." Kurapika frowned at this.

It was almost as if Una had betrayed them, but knowing Una like the back of her hand—for the Unicorn had been staying close to her for the past five years—she knew better than to think of her in such light. It seemed that Una knew more than what she let on. Or perhaps she had been contacted by Anansi before they reached her? But… For what reason? Why did Anansi go through all these troubles?

"No reason given?" Kuroro asked her.

Kurapika shook her head.

"I've been asking him, but he said they have no clue either."

"The Shishin following orders from Anansi? It truly makes me wonder." Kuroro gave a sideways glance at Suzaku, who was standing close to them.

Suzaku, unprovoked by Kuroro's words, simply gave them a charming smile.

"We are merely doing a favour out of respect for a person who once outranked us." He responded coolly.

A look of bewilderment crossed Kurapika's face, while Kuroro's face turned slightly paler. Kurapika had just opened her mouth with intention of asking what Suzaku had meant, but she was interjected by Seiryuu's words.

"Hey, since you're here and all, why don't you visit an old friend?"

Kurapika turned to him with a mild quizzical frown across her forehead.

"The Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine is close by, you know." Seiryuu said with a wide grin while jerking his head to a certain direction.

Upon hearing this, something clicked in her mind and her visage brightened.

"Kuzunoha!"

* * *

"Kurapika-san! Kuroro-san!"

The moment she laid her eyes on the pair, Kuzunoha of the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine rushed to them with arms wide open in an embrace. She did embrace Kurapika, surprising the life out of her with her bone-crushing hug. She had never imagined that such refined lady as Kuzunoha would hug anyone in such childish manner. To Kuroro, however, she only did as far as modestly giving a polite bow of curtsey and a warm welcoming smile—which Kuroro returned kindly with a similar gesture.

"Are you alright? Is everything intact?" She asked Kurapika while scanning her from head to toe.

"Intact?" Kurapika asked with her eyes widening.

"Anansi-dono's magic isn't exactly the safest one out there. In fact, he tends to go overboard." Seiryuu explained to them with a cheeky grin on his face.

Inwardly, Kuroro gave a short snort of dry amusement. _That is very much like him,_ he thought.

_So if something went wrong just now, we could've been shredded to pieces?_ Kurapika thought with a shudder.

"In any case, I have a message from Anansi-sama. But!" She emphasised the last word as she saw Kurapika opening her mouth to say something. "Let's have a tea while you tell us of what has happened in the past six years, shall we?"

"Kuzunoha!" Kurapika exclaimed in protest.

"We don't have time for this." Kuroro said with even tone.

"Oh, yes you have plenty of time." The same smile was unwaveringly etched on Kuzuonah's porcelain face. "I can assure you that. Besides, I won't be telling you anything until you tell me your stories."

"There she goes." Seiryuu whispered to Suzaku. "When she has that immovable smile on her face, there's no changing her mind."

"So we are about to hear interesting stories, then." Suzaku said while putting his index finger on his cheek while a bright, almost childish, smile was blooming on his face.

"You bet." Seiryuu said with equal enthusiasm as he saw the pair being forced to follow the Head Priestess of the Inari Shrine into the main building.

The two of them unanimously decided to keep things short and sweet, and so they summarised everything as compactly as possible. They did not glaze over all details, only giving the brief outlines of what had transpired in the last six years. Kuzunoha was completely unsatisfied by that, but for some reasons she decided not to press them any further.

"So what's Anansi's message?" Kurapika asked impatiently.

Kuzunoha gave a pout of unhappiness, but she relented anyway.

"Anansi-sama told me to relay this message to the two of you: _First of all, please pardon Lucian for tricking you because I'm the one who made him does that_."

_By threatening him, _Kuroro and Kurapika thought at the same time.

"_Second, by now you should already know that Meta is with me, and I can assure you that he is safe and sound_."

Kurapika heaved an open sigh of relief.

"_Third, you know where I am now, Kuroro. So go with Kurapika together to find me._" Kuzunoha paused, and then added cheerfully: "And that is all."

Silence filled the room.

"That's all?" Kuroro said with a raised eyebrow.

"Were you expecting more?" Kuzunoha asked back smoothly.

Kuroro went mute as he thought over it, and then he gave an offhanded shrug while muttering: "Nothing in particular."

"Well then," Kuzunoha took a quick glance at Kurapika, who looked like she had the burden of the entire world rested on her shoulders—technically yes, the burden of _her_ world was rested on her shoulders at the very moment—and so Kuzunoha stood up and excused herself. "It seems that you will need privacy to discuss about this matter. Then I shall take my leave."

Kuzunoha made a swift gesture with her hand, and two miko of the shrine came into the room.

"Please escort them to their designated room." She told the two young miko, and then she left the room after a polite bow to her guests.

Following the two quiet miko into their room, Kuroro and Kurapika exchanged not a single word; each of them was engaged in their own thoughts. For Kurapika, she was contemplating about the situation right then. Meta was still with Anansi, but she did not know whether to take that as a good thing or not. This was Anansi; Kuroro's surrogate father—despite the man's vehement denial of that tiny little fact—and he was definitely not a human. Only God in Heavens above knew what he would do to the four-years-old. She could only hope that he would not influence the boy with some non-human ideals. This was the reason of her worry: she did not know Anansi personally, so she had no ground to judge the situation clearly. Kurapika was worried sick.

"Why the long face?"

Her thought was broken by the sudden quiet voice that seemed to have splashed her face with cold water to wake her up, preventing her from drowning in her anxiety. He had a very composed expression, but she knew better that he had tons of things going on in his head as well. That man was just extremely good in displaying misleading persona, deceiving other gullible people about his true personality.

"What is Anansi, really?" She asked with quiet voice.

With a raised eyebrow, Kuroro sat cross-legged on the tatami floor. He rested his elbows on his laps and clasped his hands in front of his mouth.

"So you are worrying about what he will do to Meta?"

Kurapika twitched slightly. Kuroro was an expert in reading the direction of people's thought by even shortly conversing with them. At most times, it unnerved her. At certain times, it made things easier since she did not have to explain things to him. Still standing, Kurapika stared at Kuroro, waiting for him to say something about the matter. Kuroro had closed his eyes, seemingly deep in thought.

"Well?" Kurapika asked impatiently after a few minutes had passed.

"He won't harm him; that is for sure. However…" He opened his eyes and looked straight at Kurapika. "I can almost be sure that he will try to teach him some new…things." That, he could conclude from his own experience with that man.

Kurapika did not even bother to conceal the groan of exasperation that she was giving out loudly. The last thing she wanted was to have her boy learning weird things from weird creatures. Things were already crazy as they were; there was absolutely no need to complicate things further. With shoulders slumping in defeat, Kurapika took a seat on the tatami floor but it looked more like her legs had given in and turned into jelly.

Kuroro took his time scrutinising the blonde girl. She was thinner than ever, and her blonde hair had darkened slightly. She looked tired, anxious, and almost depressed—she appeared as if she could crumble at any time. However, despite the very much frail and fragile description, he could see the underlying inextinguishable willpower within her. It was as if the only thing that kept her going was her sheer willpower—the determination to find her lost child no matter what.

While the raven-haired man had yet to forge a father-son bond with Meta, the reason why he decided to search for Meta was none other than the fact that he found the boy too intriguing a character. He wanted to learn more about the boy. Unsettling as it was, there was another tiny reason that was perhaps the main reason why he went at all. He simply wanted to stay near Kurapika for a while more. He wanted to indulge himself a bit more, after five years of her absence.

It was as simple as that.

"Anansi once outranked the Shishin?" Kurapika suddenly whispered to nobody in particular, as if she had merely spoken her thought out loud.

"Don't ask me. I have not a clue either." Kuroro said deadpan with a shrug

Kurapika did not respond to Kuroro's non-commital gesture. In her mind, a disturbing thought kept nagging at her. She felt like she had heard that name being chanted before, as she travelled half the globe doing her Hunter duty. Had she heard that name while visiting one of the endangered tribe? If so, when? Where? That might be a clue to find where he took Meta to, but the more she probed at that almost forgotten memory, the more that particular memory seemed to slip away from the grasp of her conscious mind. It irked her like nothing else.

After a while of trying to dig through the cabinets of her memory, she finally gave it a rest. It was getting too unproductive, forcing herself like that. When the time came, the memory would come back to her. Hopefully. She then decided to take another route.

"Where do you think Anansi would be taking Meta to?" She asked Kuroro almost tentatively, as if she did not want to ask him at all but had no other choice.

"The only place that I could think of is Ryuusei-gai." He answered coolly. His answer came fast, as if he had thinking about that matter for quite a while.

"Ryuusei-gai… That's on the other side of the globe." She muttered dejectedly.

Kuroro studied Kurapika quietly, before adding: "On second note, it seems too simple and straight forward if he really took Meta to Ryuusei-gai."

A frown creased Kurapika's forehead, and then she looked up to stare at Kuroro with an intensely irritated look in those oceanic blue eyes.

"Are you suggesting that we search in every nooks and crannies around the world for them?"

"At least places that we have ever been before."

"You mean places that _you_ have ever been to before." Kurapika said pointedly as she remembered Anansi's message.

"_Third, you know where I am now, Kuroro." _That was what he said, and he was only referring to Kuroro at this point.

"And that's still a long list of them." She continued while running her hand through her golden crown of hair listlessly. It felt greasy and dirty—in short, very uncared for. "We don't have the time to go to every single place."

"Ryuusei-gai, then?"

Kurapika went silent for a while, before finally she sighed.

"It's a good place to start. Sensible, at the very least."

Before Kuroro could respond—not that he was going to respond, actually—there was a soft knock on the sliding door of their room. The soft voice of a miko then penetrated through the thin door, telling them that dusk had fallen and that the Head Priestess suggested that they spent the night in the shrine.

Leaving Kuroro to do the responding to the miko, Kurapika got to her feet and approached the window. She peered outside and, true enough, she found the sky darkening and the starts started twinkling faintly from faraway in the space. Suddenly, seeing that the day was coming to an end, Kurapika felt terribly exhausted beyond words.

Too many things had happened in only one day.

* * *

"Anansi…"

"Hmm?" The said man responded with a sing-song hum while looking down at the little boy who was holding his hand.

It was a strange sensation, having a little human hand clinging to his hand so comfortably as if that hand really belonged there. The spider incarnation rarely had any interactions with the humans, with the exception of Kuroro Lucifer and a few others. Then again, this was the first time a human willingly and _eagerly_ touched him. There was no fear, no wariness, nothing—all that existed was pure innocent, curiosity, and a sense of security coming from the little four-years-old.

_Talk about extraordinary…_ He had mused.

"Why are we here?" The little boy asked inquisitively as he looked around the surrounding.

It was a bleak place; cold and seemingly inhibited. Despite the feeling of emptiness, the place was clean with no dusts layering the place. In fact, it was so clean—bordering to sterile—that it gave a very eerie sensation. The stone wall stood imposingly and strong, aligning the path that the two were taking. There was no decoration whatsoever along those walls. Overall, the description of the place would be 'empty'.

Meta could have asked that question at Ishtar, but the said spirit was now wandering somewhere else. Ishtar rarely left Meta on his own devices, but she trusted that Anansi would take care of him just fine. Meta also seemed comfortable enough to be left alone with Anansi, despite knowing him for meagre hours only.

"So that your parents can find you." Anansi replied lightly. Had they stayed in the 'space' that Anansi created with his power, there was no way that Kuroro and Kurapika could find them.

The boy said nothing and merely stared at his feet as he walked alongside the tall man. His arm—the one which hand was holding to Anansi's hand—was getting numb for being held up for so long. Anansi was so tall, while he was so small. Meta had insisted that he wanted to hold hands with the former God, and Anansi had relented. If anything, he was more than happy to comply.

"Are you tired?"

Meta nodded slowly. They had been walking for God-knows-how-long, and his little legs had to walk in the fastest pace they could afford while sadly Anansi was already taking the slowest pace he could. With a smile on his grim visage, Anansi scooped up the little boy and continued walking at a faster pace with the boy secure in his arms.

"Anansi." The boy started again.

"Yes?"

"Why did Mom and Dad live separately?"

Anansi did not answer straight away.

"Why couldn't they just live together? Is it so hard?"

The ochre-skinned man turned to the blond little boy and looked deeply into those sapphire eyes. They were brimmed with questions and wonderment, and beyond those deep blue hue, Anansi could see the longing. The longing for a complete family.

"I have no idea." Anansi shook his head ever so slowly, his platinum gold hair swinging behind his back like a curtain of delicate spider threads. "But Meta…"

The said boy, who had earlier buried his face in Anansi's bare shoulder, looked up. Instead of looking at him, Anansi was staring at the empty space before him; at the deserted corridor that seemed to stretch indefinitely. There was a faraway look in his eyes, and Meta could feel something akin to regret pouring from the spider incarnation through his empathic ability.

"I suppose they have their own reasons…"

That was the best explanation that Anansi could give the boy at the moment.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ Gawsh! One semester has finally passed! Dear me, I feel so FREE! Sorry for the long delay in the updates, but during this holiday I hope I can finish writing the entire story, and HOPEFULLY I can start updating once a week again. Phew… After so many sleepless nights…_

_Well, what do you think of this chapter? Come on, be honest, people. I think the part when Kuroro said "You look like a spider" is kind of an irony. I dunno. I just feel that I have to put that scene. Talk about whimsical author =P And Kuroro here obviously hasn't really taken the role of a father seriously—or at least he hasn't really given it much thought. _

_**Next:**__ So their journey was decidedly started from the eastern land. This then opened a new chapter of their journey across the world—this time in search of _their_ missing child. _


	11. Chapter 9: Higanbana

_**Disclaimer: **__I could only hope it's mine…_

_**Story so far:**__ So their starting point in their journey-across-the-world-in-search-of-missing-child would be Hanzo's country; which they had visited years ago in a similar trip in search of the Scarlet Eyes. How would it start, and to which direction? Would it go 'peacefully', as Lucian and Una had been hoping?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 9**

_**HIGANBANA**_

_**

* * *

**_

The night was peaceful and quiet. So quiet it was that she began to wonder if she had trespassed into the realm of the spirits or not. She was well aware that in that country, the boundary between the world of the spirits and the humans were very thin. Anybody could just stumble into the spirit world by pure luck—or lack thereof. Then again…

She remembered that she had woken up at the dead of the night. She remembered listening to the breathing of the other occupant of the room while staring at the partition that separated him from her. His breathing had been even and quiet, indicating that he was asleep. She remembered sneaking out of the bedroom after draping a thick kimono over her sleeping kimono. She remembered walking almost purposefully along the _rōka_; the wooden passageways along the building, to the backyard of the shrine, as if she knew where she was going while in fact she did not. In the end, she found herself standing in the middle of a wooden bridge, with a garden of red flowers in their full-bloom ahead of her.

Mesmerised by how the garden seemed to be glowing red in the darkness of the night, Kurapika walked down the bridge and entered the garden. There was no pathway, indicating that the garden was not a place to take a stroll leisurely. Cold night wind blew and the flowers swayed along the rhythm of the wind. Kurapika bent down to scrutinize the flowers.

The whole flower was deep red, with exception of the stem that was pale green in colour. The stems were barely visible from above the sea of redness of the wide-rimmed flower. The flowers resembled lilies, while there were thin extensions that seemed to be the stamens curving elegantly towards the heavens, like a bowl that was begging for a blessing from the gods above.

She brushed the petals of the flowers gently and almost gingerly with the tip of her fingers. She knew of this plant. They were…

"Kurapika."

She snapped her head to the direction of the voice, surprised that she had not heard or sensed anyone approaching at all. She somewhat relaxed when she saw a familiar figure standing on the bridge.

"What are you doing here, in the dead of the night no less?" Kuroro asked, his voice deep and low as if careful not to disturb the quietness of the night.

Kurapika merely stared at him before turning away, completely ignoring the raven-haired man. Kuroro stayed where he was standing, observing the young woman that was basking in the glory of the crimson flowers. The scene before him was almost too surreal that when he first laid his eyes on this scene, he thought he was hallucinating—dreaming, at best. He had woken up slightly after Kurapika had slipped out of the room as quietly as she could. He then had no trouble tracking her down, with his Nen residing within her that had functioned as a tracking device in a way.

He almost regretted calling out at her because now the ethereality of the whole scene had seemed to be broken and was never the same again. Nevertheless, he still had the impression that Kurapika looked as if she belonged there: a golden-haired young woman amidst a sea of crimson flower. It befitted her perfectly—especially when he envisioned her staring at him from that spot with her Scarlet Eyes.

Deciding to join her in her pensiveness among those red flowers, Kuroro approached her silently. He glided across the garden and stood next to her. She still ignored her like he was never there.

"A zenni for your thought?" He inquired her softly.

She had not responded straight away. Kurapika still had the dreamy look in her eyes, before she finally answered him in a whisper.

"…I know these flowers."

Kuroro decided not to respond verbally, and instead he looked at her; giving her his full attention.

"They are called Red Spider Lilies, or_ Lycoris radiata_ in their original Latin name. In this country's native language, they go by various names: _higan-bana_; which means flowers of afterlife, _shibito-bana_; which means 'flower of the dead', _sutego-bana_; which means 'abandoned child flower', _yuurei-bana_; which literally means phantom flower, and many other names…"

The way Kurapika had spoken was as if it had been a rehearsed speech. Kuroro stared at her for a while, before finally gazing at the vast field of red flowers before him. After hearing Kurapika's explanation, he seemed to see the flowers in a completely different light.

"Such depressing names…" He muttered absentmindedly. With one hand, he reached to touch the petal of the flower nearest to him. "To think that they are so beautiful."

_Just like the Scarlet Eyes…_Kurapika thought bitterly. _They are so revered for their beauty, which in the end brought tragedy for us the Kuruta. Because they are so beautiful…That beauty became the source of our annihilation. _

She looked up to the starry night sky above, with no clouds to obscure the twinkling stars scattered all over the dark sky. There was a golden glow around the silver moon. When the time of harvest had arrived in autumn equinox, the moon reached its fullness and the _higan-bana_ flowers reached their full bloom. That particular night was a night of glory—when the moon was at its fullest and the flowers were at the peak of their otherworldly beauty.

It was no mere coincidence that both of them were awakened on that night. It seemed as if they were made to witness the surreal night. However, such thing was transient in nature.

_Are beautiful things…_Kurapika mused, _destined to be short-lived?_

Her thought was cut short when a pair of fingers—a thumb and an index finger—touched her chin and made her tilt down her head slightly. She was made to look face to face with Kuroro, and the man had a curious expression on his face. He had not even bothered concealing that expression. It was as if it did not matter at all. There was a slight frown etched between his eyebrows, and there was a mystifying glint in those abysmal obsidian eyes.

Kurapika's eyes travelled from his captivating eyes to the birthmark he had on his forehead. It was left exposed for the world to see, but right then Kuroro's world only consisted of the _higan-bana_ field and Kurapika alone. Looking at his visage, it would seem as if the man himself did not belong in the world. It was as if he was a fey spirit from the afterlife—black hair, black eyes, and clad in ink black kimono—that had come to visit her, somehow and somewhat.

Kuroro, on the other hand, felt that Kurapika was almost the very embodiment of the spirit of those _higan-bana_ flowers. Without her noticing it, her eyes had turned into their scarlet hue and those eyes, for some reason, glowed in a very otherworldly light that he felt compelled to tilt her face towards him so that he could get a full view of it. He could not help but to openly admire those eyes. He knew that her Scarlet Eyes had always been exceptional, but this time it was even more…special.

Even better was the comforting fact that Kurapika had not swatted his hand away roughly as she usually did.

For a moment, time seemed to have stopped indefinitely.

Then, as if it was a staged act, the two of them saw another figure from behind each other. Both looked away from each other to address the newcomer. Behind Kuroro, Kurapika saw a figure that was almost like her doppelganger. Behind Kurapika, Kuroro saw a feminine figure that was of the same colouring as him. Both held their breath as they came into realization of who they were looking at.

* * *

In her own personal quarter, Kuzunoha was playing her _koto_ most gracefully and skilfully with her eyes closed. She could sense it, the arrival of the phenomenon that occurred very rarely; and yet she did not have the right to witness it. What a shame. It was not like she had any choice in the matter. The only thing she could do was to play her _koto_ as the _higan-ban_a was playing their magic.

"All because they were standing in a field of the so-called 'flower of the afterlife'." She whispered to nobody in particular.

"I suppose it is about time for them to come to terms with the ghosts of their pasts." Said Suzaku, who had been accompanying the Head Priestess since she began playing her _koto_.

He was standing in the garden next to Kuzunoha's bedroom, his golden eyes staring at the distance which was the direction of the _higan-bana _field. While he could not see the field, he had a good guess on what was happening in that enigmatic place.

The other cardinal beasts were present as well. Genbu was sitting on the doorstep of Kuzunoha's open _shōji_ window with his back leaning against the bamboo frame, his arms slipped into the sleeves of his kimono. Byakko; who was sitting cross-legged and cross-armed at one corner of the room, merely nodded his head solemnly in agreement to Suzaku's earlier remark. Seiryuu was lying on his stomach on the tatami floor while his hands supported his pale with bluish tint face, his bored cobalt blue eyes staring dully at the shimmering silver moon.

"I wonder if they'll notice that those flowers are just showing illusions…" Seiryuu drawled almost drowsily.

"Mirages. That's simply what they are seeing right now; figures of the deceased that are drawn from their own memories." Genbu said sagaciously. "The flowers show the deceased as how they are remembered by them."

"Humans are born to eventually die. They come and go in life. In that field, they are confronted by the mirages of those whose death they have not come to term with." Byakko murmured.

Saikyō; the prefecture that housed the Fushimi Inari Shrine, was located in the centre of the country—the so-called heart of the country. It fell under the jurisdiction of none of the four Shishin deities. During such night, on the peak of the autumn equinox when the _higan-bana_ and the moon were at their peak, the four cardinal creatures would gather in the field and had a merry time—which involved _sake_—together. However, this year they seemed to have to cancel the party. They were fine with it. After all, they had been having that party for several hundred times already.

_I am really looking forward to tomorrow morning,_ the phoenix thought as a smile crept up his exquisite visage.

* * *

Kurapika could not believe her eyes. Was it really her brother who was standing there? The figure was now younger than her—it was the image of her brother as how she remembered him the last time before his death. At that time, his brother was only 17 years old, now she was already 24 years old. It was already over 10 years since the massacre of her tribe.

The wind blew around them, teasing the crimson flowers while the air seemed to carry the scent of afterlife itself. Kurapika stood still on her ground, at loss on what to do. She was torn between rushing over to the vision of her brother and to stay rooted there. She was afraid that once she approached that apparition, it turned out to be really nothing but an illusion; a Fata Morgana. Her eyes were fixed on the glowing figure, and she then noticed that the face of her brother was that of a serene expression. She saw him moving his lips ever so slowly. She could not hear his voice, but she could lips-read the message that he was trying to convey to her.

_I…am…_Kurapika repeated the message in her heart; one that was beating so hard she could almost hear it. _Happy…for…you…_

Her eyes widened in disbelief.

_I am happy for you._

Her mouth could not help but to go ajar as her brains tried to process that message. What did that mean? Why was her brother telling her that? What was there to be happy about? Just as those questions were swirling in her head, that image of her brother smiled at her. Seeing that smile, Kurapika could not help but to recall her brother's words the last time when his spirit had visited her. It was the time after she had seen her brother's decapitated head, in which she had been dying out of massive blood loss after her frenzied attack at Kuroro.

_There is happiness around you in abundance._

Following the recollection of that sentence, faces started to flash before her eyes. It was the same as the last time; with additional faces that she had gotten to know over the past few years. At the very last, two faces left the strongest impression: Kuroro Lucifer and Meta.

As if sensing that Kurapika had finally understood the meaning of his message, the apparition of her brother began to waver. It looked almost static, like a hologram projection that was dissipating.

"No…No, no, no…" Kurapika chanted under her breath, unwilling to see her brother disappearing before her eyes again.

She had just taken half a step forward when suddenly she saw the figure shaking his head solemnly. The apparition was getting thinner and thinner, its dimension scattering all over the place. The colour was drained from Kurapika's face as she witnessed this, and she had to muster all self-discipline she had not to rush to her brother's dissolving figure. Even until the last moment, her brother held the gentle smile on his face.

Just as his figure completely evaporated and melted into nothingness, Kurapika heard his voice that seemed to resonate in her head.

_You belong there…_

Those simple words made Kurapika choked a sob. Her shoulders trembled as she tried to rein in the tears that were threatening to overflow, but suddenly a pair of hands was rested on her upper arms.

"Did you see your brother?" came Kuroro's even and trained voice.

People who were unfamiliar with the man would have thought that he was being composed and calm, but Kurapika could detect the restlessness in his voice—and something more. Suddenly sensing that perhaps Kuroro had seen an apparition like she did, Kurapika turned around to see who he had seen but the field was empty.

"She is gone." He simply stated.

That statement was said as if to confirm Kurapika's guess that it was really Ishtar of Ryuusei-gai that he had seen. Of course. She should have known it instead of guessing it. Nevertheless…

Kurapika took one step backward so that she could examine his face. She was downright surprised to see his face showing no emotions at all. She had expected him to be slightly troubled at the very least—since she knew that he had failed to fulfil her dying wish last time: that was to call her 'Mother'—but no. There was literally nothing in his face. It was as if he had put on a frozen mask, and even his eyes seemed to have turned dull and soulless. His face was so blank and emotionless it almost scared her. She knew that he could be stoic at times, but not like this.

"Let's go back." Kuroro said with a voice that sounded so neutral it made Kurapika almost flinch.

Although his voice was soft, it was deafening to her ears. The wind had stopped blowing for quite sometime—since when, she could not really remember. The place had turned almost deathly quiet then. Her psyche still labile to due to the unprecedented confrontation with the ghostly apparition of her brother, Kurapika could only comply as Kuroro gently push her by her shoulders towards the bridge.

They walked in silence, even as they entered their shared room. Kurapika shuffled her feet towards her _futon_ that was lying on the floor, but she made no move to slide underneath the blanket. She merely stared at it, as if the inanimate bedding was baring its invisible teeth towards her. Kuroro, on the other hand, remained standing where he was after he had soundlessly shut the _shōji _door behind him. Kurapika glanced back at him, unsure of what to do. Should she just simply go back to sleep, or…?

"Kuroro?" She asked him with small voice.

Kuroro had not responded. When he did respond, all he did was to lift up his head ever so slightly while his back was still facing Kurapika. Then, after a while more, he said as if to nobody in particular:

"Having attachment is such a troublesome thing…"

Before Kurapika could process the implication of his words, Kuroro was already right in front of her. The next thing she knew, she was plunged into the darkness of dreamless sleep. Her knees buckled beneath her as her consciousness slipped away, but before she could fall into a heap to the floor, Kuroro caught her in his arms.

He settled down on the floor and positioned Kurapika so that her head was rested against his chest. He had hit the base of her neck with his hand in such an ungodly speed that even Kurapika failed to notice it—under normal circumstances, she might have noticed it but at the moment she was too distracted by a lot of things around her—with only enough strength to make her pass out without inflicting any injuries. That was not an easy thing to do, but Kuroro Lucifer managed to pull it off without the slightest difficulties. He had purposely knocked her out for the reason that he was about to do something that would have fallen under the category of 'breach of privacy' by Kurapika's standard. She would give him a hard time for it, and therefore he decided to do it while she was out cold.

Not that he was going to do anything immoral or anything. The only thing he was going to do was to take away his Nen that was residing inside her.

When he was in the _higan-bana_ field earlier, and when he was confronted by the illusion of Isthar summoned by the magic of the flowers—a fact that he was unaware of—he was reminded of how strong his attachment to the deceased woman was. He only realised that when she died by his hands years ago. The feeling of loss when Ishtar had died had him unsettled to such a momentous extent that he decided that he did not want anymore attachments to anything.

Having his Nen within Kurapika was the same as having her constant presence at the back of his mind. Even during the five years when they had lived away from each other, he had to purposefully repress that presence to the furthest part of his mind. He did not want to experience the same feeling of loss in the coming future. He simply wanted to avoid the avoidable.

He looked down at the unconscious Kurapika in his arms. Her breathing was regular, the steady rise and fall of her chest as she breathed could be felt as her body was pressed against his. Absentmindedly, he raised one hand and began stroking her golden crown. He buried his face into that golden mop of hair, taking in her faint scent. Slowly, he allowed his Nen to rise up and envelop the both of them. Doing it with her Nen active would be easier, but the unconscious Kurapika would be more cooperative than when she was awake at the moment.

After thoroughly soaking Kurapika in his Nen, the glowing energy then found the channel that could link itself with his Nen that was within her. Tracing the channel, Kuroro tried to probe the core of his Nen inside her. It was like diving in a sea of dense fluid. Her Nen was so latent and strong, brimming with potential and power. A frown creased his forehead as he had to put in more effort in finding his Nen; Kurapika's Nen was resisting his invading Nen. When he did find his Nen inside the pool of her Nen, Kuroro Lucifer found himself facing a huge dilemma.

Logically, he wanted to put it to an end. In reality, while his Nen was still somewhat intact within her and he would be able to easily extract it out of Kurapika's inner Nen reservoir, he did not have the heart to do it. He had the feeling that it would be such a pity to simply severe the link he had established with the girl years ago.

Had Kurapika heard this thought of his, she would have scorned him most derisively:

_You, who have taken so many lives without even so much as batting an eyelash, what right do you have to talk about hearts?_

Kuroro gave a soft snort as he could literally hear her scoffing voice in his mind. Was it the sign of 'over-knowing' as he could start hearing her voice in his mind and imagining her choice of words almost effortlessly?

"Honestly…" He whispered.

He lowered his head further until his lips were just above her ears, and then pressed his cheek against her temple. He remained that way as he withdrew his Nen peacefully from her. He ultimately decided that he would leave his Nen within her, though he would have to come up with an excuse for that—while he had yet to find out the _truest_ reason for his action. He had tried staying away from her physically, only to be reunited again albeit under a very…unique condition. Now that he had the chance to severe the so-called spiritual connection, he simply could not do it.

Closing his eyes slowly, he tightened his embrace around her limp body.

"What am I supposed to do about you?"

Kuroro Lucifer was completely at loss.

* * *

The night sky was clear, and there were no clouds to obscure the full moon and the starts from view. Despite being a ghost, Pakunoda could still enjoy the glorious feeling of basking under the illumination of the silver moon. She wondered if her Danchou was seeing the same moon then, somewhere on the surface of this Earth.

Her thought then strayed from her Danchou to the chain assassin. She remembered the time when she had haunted the chain-assassin—following _him_ all day long, staying by his side to keep an eye on what he was going to do about the Genei Ryodan prior her death. Her intention had not been to torture Kurapika at that time, really. It just happened that Kurapika was paranoid and thought that her ghost and Uvogin's were there to haunt him. She just wanted to know what would happen after her death. Why had she not follow Kuroro, then?

She could not.

In the end, she realised that her worry had not been about Kuroro's wellbeing only. It was more to what her colleagues would do after acquiring the secret of the assassin guy—information that they got in exchange of her life. Would they squander it or would they make full use of it to respect her? Deep inside, even in death, Pakunoda knew that Kuroro Lucifer would be fine. He would always be fine as long as it did not involve the chain-assassin—or so she believed at that time.

"Meow…"

The soft voice almost startled her. She spun around and was greeted by a pair of feline eyes staring right at her direction. She remembered those eyes. She remembered that cat. It was the cat that she had taken with her as she walked back to the Headquarter just before her death.

_Do you remember me?_ She asked the cat with her ghastly voice. Suddenly, she felt silly of her own actions. Of course the cat couldn't hear her. She was, after all, only a ghost—a bodiless remnant of her former self.

"Meow…" said that cat as it approached her floating form.

Or could it?

Curious, Pakunoda squatted and reached out to pat the cat. The cat did not move, and it still did not as Pakunoda's hand passed through its body. A shadow of sadness flitted across the woman's transparent face. She then vaguely wondered if the cat had stayed in the compound because she had brought it there over eight years ago. If it had, Pakunoda felt genuinely touched by that act of simple-mindedness.

_Then again, I have been staying here as well…_She murmured to herself.

Why had she decided to linger in the compound then, sticking to her death-place and make-shift graveyard? Perhaps it was attachment on her side—attachment to the Headquarter of the Genei Ryodan that had housed many of their meetings, and also attachment to her 'death-bed' where she had nobly sacrificed her life for the sake of sharing crucial information with her colleagues; colleagues who were more like family to her. It was a pride. She had never thought that she would ever be able to do such a plausible deed.

Then again, maybe her attachment to the material world was not due to her attachment at all. She remembered being tied down to the material world, unable to ascend to 'afterlife' or whatever else people named it. It seemed, now that she actively pondered about it, that someone had not yet gone over her violent death.

_But who?_ She pondered._ Who would mourn over my death so much that it ties down my soul to the mortal world? _

She thought of the possibility.

Danchou? She would be ultimately honoured if that was the case, but no. She knew very well that Kuroro Lucifer was not someone who dwelt so much on someone's death. He would go over it soon—but only until he had made sure that 'justice' had been carried. Just like in Uvogin's case. In her case…well…

_I wonder what Danchou thought of my death? _She absentmindedly mused, but gave it no further thought.

The other Spiders? No, she doubted it. They, including her, remembered by heart that their job descriptions included death-in-action. Even if someone in their group were to die, they would simply dismiss it with the fact that the person was just too weak to defend him/herself. They deserved it. That was all there was to it.

Who else? She had no family to mourn for her, no loved ones—'love' definitely did not exist in the dictionary of the Genei Ryodan—to grieve for her death. The Genei Ryodan was her only family, but they were most certainly not just some ordinary family. Though she cared for them, they were not 'loved ones' as in common people's standard. It was as if they were gathered by mutuality of their circumstances rather than anything else.

Who?

There was only one person that she could think of, most unlikely as it seemed.

Kurapika Kuruta.

Her murderer.

Pakunoda wanted to laugh at the irony upon realising that this was the most likely case, ridiculous and contradictory as it might sound.

_Still feel guilty over my death, Kurapika Kuruta? You are a failure for an assassin,_ she thought as she stared at the night sky above.

By then, the cat was already curling next to Pakunoda's feet; looking comfortable and content.

_Hurry up and get over with it, you silly girl._

If a ghost could shed a tear, Pakunoda would have done it.

* * *

"_Shalnark."_

"_Yeah?"_

" _The Spider whom I killed…Beside Pakunoda…"_

"_You mean Uvo?"_

"_Yes, him. Are you close with him?"_

"_Hmm…Sort of. Why?"_

"_Well…I think I'm obliged to tell you this…"_

Following that conversation, Kurapika had then told him where to look for Uvogin's make-shift grave in the wasteland where they had fought to death. Kurapika had specially told him not to tell Kuroro where the grave was. When asked, she only responded that she had promised him to take him there herself. When Shalnark heard this, he had laughed in his heart at the irony of it.

"She called him her enemy, but she sticks to the promise that she made with him. Strange, huh?"

The night was cold and the breeze was chilly. The sound of the dusts being disturbed by the wind and the shuffles of the dirt under his feet were the only sounds that could be heard around the vicinity. Even the noises from Yorkshin City—the metropolitan city that never slept for even once—were turned drown in the deadness of the wasteland. When Shalnark reached a small mound on a certain spot in the wasteland, there was a smile on his face.

"What do you think," he inquired to the earthen mound, "Uvo?"

There was no reply forthcoming.

With a sigh, Shalnark sat next to the mound and stared at it as if he could look at Uvogin's face that was lying underneath the pile of dirt. If only Meta was there, there might be a hope that he could communicate with Uvogin's ghosts…if there was really his ghost there. Knowing that simpleton, Shalnark suspected that he would be satisfied to die by the chain-assassin's hands. After all, he did not betray the Spider at the very last moment of his life. After all, he died in a (supposedly) honest battle and it suited his taste just perfectly. It would be no wonder that Uvogin's soul and spirit had passed over to the other side without any regrets left behind. He was, all in all, a very simplistic and childishly contented person.

"If you were alive, you'd make a good playmate for Meta." Shalnark continued murmuring to Uvogin's grave. "I'm sure you'll like him."

Shalnark tilted his body backwards and allowed his body to fall onto the earthen mound. His head rested on the surprisingly soft soil, he resumed his monologue.

"You know…Although he looks so much like Kurapika, I think he is more like Danchou." He paused, before adding, "in the inside, I mean."

Silence ensued, and Shalnark stared at the stars above with a faraway look in his eyes.

"You should've seen how he messed around with Nobu."

Ah, speaking of Nobunaga, Shalnark had contemplated on telling Nobunaga about the location of Uvogin's grave. In the end, he had decided against it. Nobunaga would surely announce it to the whole gang before Shalnark even had the time to warn him not to tell a single soul about it. If that happened, words would surely reach Danchou, and next up would be his punishment delivered by a certain wrathful Kuruta…Shalnark shuddered involuntarily at the possibility and decided not to think further about it lest he started having white hair.

"The poor guy… He even dubs him his personal hellion straight from the bowel of Hell!" Shalnark then rambled about how Nobunaga was at loss on what to do with the little boy. He went on and on, until finally his words trailed away at the tip of his tongue as he realised something.

_Why am I talking by myself?_ He wondered, before finally chuckling to himself. _I guess Meta's habit is rubbing off on me._

He fell into silence as he contemplated on everything that had happened in the duration of five years. He had but one conclusion:

"Danchou has changed." Shalnark murmured while closing his eyes. "Don't you agree, Uvo?"

The wind stirred up, as if responding to Shalnark's words.

* * *

He was seeing thunderous clouds, or maybe thundering typhoon. In any case, he knew that he would do well by steering clear of the walking storm. Said typhoon had her back towards Kuroro Lucifer; who was behaving as if everything was as normal as it could be.

"What happened last night, do you think?" Seiryuu whispered in very low voice to Suzaku as his eyes shifted back and forth between the two humans.

"I wish I know." Suzaku whispered back.

"Ohohoho…The joy of youth." Genbu said while stroking his snow-white beard.

"That's definitely not it, old timer." Seiryuu murmured dryly while giving Genbu a 'gimme a break' look.

"Respect your elder!" The old man barked while hitting the younger Shishin with his wooden staff (which gave a beautiful THUNK!)

All the while, Byakko simply sat as far away as possible from the brawling couple—he preferred not to get infected by their 'weirdo' virus. Ignoring the rising commotion that Seiryuu ignited, the tiger incarnation stared at the humans with curious feline eyes. While he had no idea on what had happened the night before, he had the general idea that the human male had had a rough morning—due to the ear-splitting noise that the human female had produced.

The first thing Kurapika had done when she had woken up was to holler at him as if she intended to kill him by her vocal strength alone. Fortunately the windows and the doors were made out of paper material, so there was no glass breaking anywhere. The vase placed in the room had a crack, though.

"WHAT THE DEUCE DID YOU DO?" was what she had yelled at him.

Fortunately for Kuroro, he was already awake by then; sitting up on his _futon_ even. In all honestly, he had not done anything except for knocking her out cold. He had even tucked her into the bed and had gone to bed straight after that.

More than angry, Kurapika was actually mortified. When she woke up in the morning, she hardly remembered anything after the _higan-bana _field except for Kuroro suddenly standing in front of her before she blacked out. She knew that he had done something but she was too flustered to coherently interrogate him that she could only stammer some "What the—", "How did—", "You had better not—", "I swear I'll—", and some others along that line, while she continued checking on her sleeping kimono and all.

"Kurapika." He had called at her with voice that was as calm as the surface of the ocean.

Kurapika instantly stopped whatever she was doing nervously and looked at him. He was looking straight into her eyes, with hints of humour playing in those obsidian eyes. The corner of Kurapika's mouth twitched upon seeing that: _He is freaking amused! How dare he—_

"Calm down." Kuroro said again while maintaining the eye contact with her. "Take a deep breath."

Realising that she was indeed not breathing, Kurapika obediently took a _very_ deep breath and exhaled soundly.

"You little…" She practically growled at him. "What did you do to me last night?"

A quizzical raised eyebrow and a "Nothing" came from Kuroro, accompanied with a noncommittal shrug. A vein throbbed on Kurapika's temple.

"Then what was that for?" She demanded while banging her hand on the tatami floor—not that it produced the desired effect of loud noise, though.

"What was what?" He asked with innocent face.

"Don't play fool here, mister! Why did you knock me out last night if you hadn't intended to do anything?"

A grin spread on Kuroro's exquisite face.

"Now, there you go. _Intended_ is the keyword."

Kurapika groaned in exasperation.

"Just answer me, dammit!"

"Being very impatient today, aren't we?"

"For the love of God, Kuro—"

"I intended on taking away my Nen from inside you."

Kurapika stopped whatever cussing that she was ready to unleash at the tip of her tongue. All she could do was to stare dumbly at the ever so composed Kuroro. Seconds ticked away, until finally Kurapika managed to squeeze out a: "What?" with a thoroughly disbelieving look on her face.

"Like I said," Kuroro straightened up on his _futon_. "I planned on extracting my Nen that I put in you years ago," an ironic smile graced his face, "in this very same site."

Silence rolled by again, but this time Kurapika seemed to be concentrating on something as she looked down on the floor. After a while, she looked up again and stared at Kuroro with a daring face.

"But you didn't."

Kuroro cocked his head sideways. "How did you know?"

"You said _intended_ and _planned_, which doesn't necessarily mean you really carry out that plan." She said slowly, and she paused for a while before hesitantly added: "And I could still feel _it_."

"You could?"

There was an undeniable surprise in his voice, but what took Kurapika aback more was the gentle shadow that flashed fleetingly in those abysmal dark eyes. When she blinked and looked again into his eyes, it was gone. His eyes were back to their seemingly natural gelid state. Kurapika licked her lips; she had not realised that they were parched dry.

"So why didn't you do that?" She asked almost cautiously. Somehow, she felt like she was trading on precarious ground.

Kuroro looked away and out to the open space beyond the window. After a while, he answered her flatly with voice that was devoid of any emotions.

"That is none of your business."

While that sentence was almost like Kurapika's trademark tagline, she felt utterly pissed off by it. Under normal circumstances, she might not give that kind of attitude much thought. Kuroro might not say it as often as she did, from what she remembered of the days six years ago when they had been travelling together, but he did say that every now and then. She understood his need of privacy, because she did too. However, this time she knew that she had the right to know of what his intention was, because she was directly involved in it. Heck, he knocked her out, for goodness sake!

"First you knock me out cold without saying a word," she glowered at him in a fashion that made her voice almost sounded guttural, and eventually her voice ended up as a yell of "and now you still have the nerve to say that it is NONE of my business?"

That was basically how Kurapika turned to be a walking storm.

Kuzunoha looked at Kurapika, and then to Kuroro, and then back to Kurapika again, before she finally sighed in almost a resigned manner.

"I'd hate to see you off when the two of you are in such an antagonistic state, but what can a humble servant like me do?"

Not a single reply came from the two humans. Kuzunoha sighed deeply again.

"Fine. So what are you going to do now? Where are you going?" She asked sincerely.

Kurapika chewed the inside of her mouth. Fortunately they had discussed the matter last evening before they went to bed, because Kurapika was determined not to talk to that incorrigibly annoying man until he talked—more like apologised—to her.

"We are going to Ryuusei-gai. Best is if we can get a blimp that is flying straight to Rhutenia." Kurapika answered somewhat stiffly. "But we don't even know if there are even any flights going straight there. It's practically on the other side of the globe."

Rhutenia was the country where Ryuusei-gai was located at the outskirt. Ryuusei-gai was surrounded by vast desert of Rhutenia, and the only way to reach that desert safely was to go through the dense 'jungle'—as Kurapika had once dubbed it on her first trip to that God-forsaken place—that was lying between the desert and Rhutenia's neighbouring country; the Haemus States.

"So the most logical plan right now is to go to a city that houses an airport and a harbour. Is there any of such city here?"

The Shishin exchanged looks at each other. The same question echoed in their heads: were there such cities? Silence descended into the congregation of two humans and five non-humans. Kuroro and Kurapika waited in anticipation, while the Shishin and Kuzunoha tried to ransack their memories for such city. After a while, when Kurapika was about to go for the alternative, Suzaku suddenly clapped his hands loudly and made an exclamation.

"I remember! There is one such city in the South. The city is called Hakata, and it is one of the most modern cities in the country. It has an airport and a harbour," he turned to Kurapika and beamed at her, "just as you wish."

"I am profoundly surprised that a forgetful creature like you actually remembers such details." Byakko muttered with eyes that were showing genuine surprise.

"Tut-tut! You hurt my feelings, Byakko-dono." Suzaku pursed his lips in an open sulk while putting his hand dramatically on his chest where his heart was supposedly located.

"Not that he is to blame, though." Genbu said with a merry laughter that was so characteristic of an old man.

"Exactly my sentiment." Seiryuu snickered.

"Why you—"

"So how do we get there?"

The Shishin's imminent childish bickering routine was cut abruptly by Kuroro's firm voice. He had his hands in his pockets and he was looking at them in a very relaxed manner, but there was something in his voice that made them stopped. Perhaps it was just simply his charisma.

"Well, I reckon that you are quite in a hurry, yes?" Suzaku said at length.

Kurapika nodded decisively.

"Then I suppose the fastest route to go there is through the Ghost Path."

The moment that name escaped Suzaku's mouth, an obvious groan escaped Kurapika's mouth while Kuroro rolled his eyes in a manner that resembled exasperation. Seeing their reaction, Suzaku could not help but to provoke them further.

"And you will be boarding Oborogurumo—"

"Again?" Kurapika and Kuroro said in perfect unison. They still remembered the bad impression that the eccentric mode of transportation left with them the last time they boarded _her_.

"…again." Suzaku nodded with a grin.

"Are pulling their legs or what?" Seiryuu gave his confrere a suspecting frown, yet the corners of his mouth were tugged up into an undeniable smirk. He had to concur that they were so fun to mess with, especially the blonde one.

"Please do not put me on the same level as you, Seiryuu-dono." Suzaku said in a flat, cold tone—though his eyes were playful all the while.

"Wha—"

"He is absolutely right. He is not like you who shamelessly toy with those poor humans." Genbu said sternly while jabbing Seiryuu's stomach with the blunt end of his wooden staff; knocking the blessed air out of the younger celestial being's stomach—it made Seiryuu utters an unbecoming "Oof!"

"Well then, I suggest you start moving now." Kuzunoha said while ignoring the little recurring drama as Seiryuu and Genbu were going for it again. "They can go on forever, mind you."

Kuzunoha then turned halfway to give a this-is-the-sacred-shrine-of-the-Inari-God-so-you-punks-better-keep-quiet-or-you-will-be-sorry glare at the Shishin, particularly at Seiryuu and Genbu; who were making the most noises. Once she was satisfied when they had shut their blabbering mouths, Kuzunoha turned back to her guests and gave them a charming smile.

"I suppose I can only see you off up until the gate of this shrine. As the Head Priestess, I am not allowed to step out of the confinement of this shrine except for certain occasions, and you cannot open the Ghost Path anywhere near this shrine. So allow me to accompany you until the gate." Kuzunoha said softly as she led the way.

"Why can't we open the Ghost Path near the shrine?" Kurapika asked.

By this time, her anger had seemingly evaporated and she was in a thoroughly better mood. Perhaps it was because of the stress-relief show certain Shishin had been displaying, or perhaps it was because finally they were moving somewhere with a concise plan at hand.

"Have you heard of _kimon_?" Kuzunoha asked without looking back at them.

"I have heard," Kurapika answered, "though it will be nice to have a more detailed explanation from someone who is familiar with that concept."

"Good. As you know, _kimon_ is what you may call the gate that connects this human world with the demon realm. One of those _kimon_ is located at the close vicinity of this very shrine. No, actually this shrine was built near that _kimon_ so that the Inari God can help Man by warding off evils coming from that accursed gate. If you open a Ghost Path near the _kimon_, it is the same as amplifying the influence of the _kimon_, since the Ghost Path carries negative air with it." Kuzunoha explained patiently as they walked down the crimson _torii_ gate that would lead them to the grand staircase that marked the exit cum entrance of the shrine.

As they walked down the overwhelmingly red pathway, with the sound of the silky fabric of Kuzunoha's fine kimono brushing against the stone pathway, Kurapika could not help but to be reminded of the transcendent night in the _higan-bana_ field. She pondered whether it was really her brother that she had seen, or was she just hallucinating? Kuroro had seen the image of Ishtar as well, so it was too strange to be a coincidence that two 'ghosts' would appear at the same place at the same time. Was another power or magic at work at that night? In any case, whatever happened in that _higan-bana_ field had affected Kuroro to quite an extent.

Kurapika looked down at the ring that was encircling the base of her ring finger. Under the dim illumination of the scarce rays of morning sun that managed to pass through the canopy of the dense forest, the black gem glinted almost dolefully. She moved her hand slightly as she played around with the sparse reflection of light on the ring, her expression contemplative and somewhat dour.

"We will part ways here." Kuzunoha's soft voice broke her from her reverie.

The Kuruta looked up and realised that they were already at end of the _torii_ gate, with the grand staircase dipping down almost menacingly just before them. One slip at one of those steps, and average humans could say bye-bye to their intact bodies. Needless to say, that kind of tricky terrain proved to be not a concern for the likes of Kuroro and Kurapika.

"Have a safe trip, the two of you. Godspeed." The Head Priestess said with almost palpable sincerity in her voice and words.

"See you again next time, Kuzunoha." Kurapika said with a heartfelt smile. Kuzunoha's passionate sincerity was really contagious.

"I really do hope the time will come soon." She said with a polite bow.

"Until next time." Kuroro said with a slight bow of courtesy.

Kuzunoha remained standing on her spot as she waited until they were out of her eyesight. Just as they were about to disappear behind the turn of the staircase, she called out at them as if she had forgotten to tell them something important.

"And quickly make up, will you?"

Both humans did not respond to that sentence; not that Kuzunoha would know whether they responded or not since they were already well beyond her line of sight. After a while, Kurapika let out a "hmph". Kuroro glanced at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Only if certain someone decides to give some explanations." Kurapika murmured, but loud enough for Kuroro to hear.

Kuroro merely chuckled somewhat amiably. It was as if it was not such a big deal at all, which irritated Kurapika even more.

"In due time, Kurapika." He said smoothly. "In due time."

"Which translates into 'whenever I feel like it'." Kurapika grumbled while rolling her eyes in exasperation.

A thin smile graced Kuroro's stoic feature upon hearing that. She knew him well.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ Okay, I know this chapter is very depressing with all the ghost talks and everything else, but it's just as the title says…This chapter is dedicated for afterlife issues…I guess? Why do you think Pakunoda cries? Hehehe…Oh, and I seriously think Uvogin and Meta can be real good friends =P I know Kuroro's being a jerk here by saying "It's none of your business" when it has everything to do with Kurapika. _

_By the by, Rhutenia was the old name of Russia and Hakata was another name for Fukuoka, while Muntenia was the old name of Romania (according to Wikipedia). I adopt the names of existing places but I shuffle the locations of those places randomly. So if you try to compare their route to the real world map, well…you are not recommended to do it =P_

_For the next chapter, I can't wait to finish writing it! (though I've just started on it =P) C'mon people, please do review so I know that you're still following my story—I know this is a selfish request but yeah…-_- Humour me a bit? Hehehe…_

_**Next:**__ Kurapika and Kuroro went to Hakata city in order to find a way to quickly go to Ryuusei-gai. What was the outcome that was to be? Who would have known that in the end they would be forced to make a detour?_


	12. Chapter 10: Bensalem

_**fDisclaimer: **__Still not mine._

_**Story so far:**__ After a short time spent in with the Shishin and Kuzunoha, Kuroro and Kurapika began their journey from Hakata. While Kurapika had hoped for a smooth journey, and although they already had a concrete plan at hand, fate seemed to simply love to toy with them as they were forced to make a detour—an unpleasant one, at that._

_

* * *

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**Chapter 10**

_**BENSALEM**_

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* * *

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Blue.

No matter how far and where the eyes saw, it was only vast stretch of blue—blue sky, blue ocean—and bit of white from the clouds above, the ocean bubbles, the sailors' uniforms, and the cruise itself. Overall, it was white and blue; with combination of colours coming from the outfits of the passengers of the cruise.

It was quite a fancy cruise that they had boarded. It just happened that it was the only ship going from the Hakata harbour to Muntenia; which was Lucian Virgiliu's home country, by Kuroro's account. They had gone to the airport first, but there was not a single blimp going from that country island to any of the areas around Rhutenia, so they had no choice but to board a ship. They were quite fortunate that there was a ship going to Muntenia, since it was one of the states that was part of the Haemus States. In other words, their journey would not be painfully long.

The border between Muntenia and Rhutenia was shrouded by a thick forest—the so-called 'jungle', as dubbed by Kurapika—and to get to that forest they had to scale the mountain that surrounded Muntenia. In short, all they needed to do was to alight in Muntenia, hiked the mountain, entered the forest, and once they were clear from the forest, they would be greeted by the vast desert of Rhutenia that surrounded Ryuusei-gai. The layout of the plan was quite straight forward, and Kurapika was quite pleased with it considering that they had quite a messy start.

As for the journey from the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, once the two of them had reached the bottom of the impossibly long staircase—Kurapika wondered how the last time six years ago she managed to climb all the way up while dragging a half-dead Kuroro with her without dying halfway first—Suzaku was already waiting there with the Ghost Path staring at them sinisterly, and with Oborogurumo ready at his disposal.

"I pray for your safe and enjoyable trip to wherever you are heading to," was all that Suzaku said—or rather, what they could hear—before Oborogurumo leapt at them and swallowed them whole.

Truth was they had plenty of time to dodge Oborogurumo's gaping mouth based on their superb reflexes, and they had actually had to tell themselves that they had to stay rooted and allowed the demonic spirit to gobble them down to gain entrance. So much for entering an oddball of a vehicle.

_This will be quite a long journey, my honourable guestsssss…_ Oborogurumo had told them (or rather, hissed in a slithering manner) as the demonic carriage started moving.

"She really does sound like Basille…" Kurapika muttered to herself as she got off from on top of Kuroro (this time she landed on top of him, as opposed to the previous experience).

Kuroro gave her a raised eyebrow as he gathered himself from the wooden floor of the carriage.

"You still remember that old snake?"

Kurapika merely shrugged and said not a single word anymore. The rest of the journey then went uneventful. Like last time, they occupied themselves with thoughts vis-à-vis their own troubles; keeping their counsels to themselves. There was simply something about the carriage that made them fell into a contemplative state.

Oborogurumo had dropped them off at the outskirt of the forest that was a distant away from the bustling city. Kurapika had good-naturedly said thank you to the _youkai_, which the female spirits only replied with a hissing _I'm simply doing this for Suzaku-samaaaa…_

Long stories cut short, they had gone to the airport, and upon exiting the building empty-handed they had decidedly gone to the harbour. Queries asked, tickets purchased, in the next few hours they found themselves on board of the Raifuku Maru cruise that was heading to Muntenia in the middle of the ocean.

Kurapika sighed. It was still a whole bunch of hours more before they reached their destination, but already she was fidgeting impatiently. After depositing whatever meagre belonging she had—which consisted of only a few outfits that Kuzunoha had generously given them, since they arrived in the country with virtually nothing but what they were wearing—Kurapika had set about to explore the ship without so much as saying a word to Kuroro. Apparently she was still upset with Kuroro for not explaining his action towards her the night before.

_She sure knows how to hold grudges_, Kuroro chuckled amusedly while he exited their shared room to indulge himself with whatever services that the cruise provided for its rich passengers. Money was never a problem to him and Kurapika—she used her Hunter License here—so they had no problem getting a ticket to board that fancy cruise.

In all honesty, the reason for that shared room—with king-sized bed, mind you—was that the ticket clerk had presumptuously decided that they were a married couple without even confirming with them. Under normal circumstances, Kurapika would have screamed her heads off at the ticket clerk—who was swooning the moment she laid her eyes on Kuroro (which made Kurapika rolled her eyes)—but Kurapika was too tired and exasperated to correct her. Anyway, they were wearing matching rings on their ring fingers in the first place so it was quite natural for people to mistake them as married couple. It seemed that the two of them were getting used to the setting that they were a married couple—though presently their attitude showed otherwise. After all, that was the excuse that they had been using for the past five years.

It turned out, after a few minutes of wandering around the cruise, that it was quite boring. Nothing was new there; the same rich people with typical talks and gossips, the same luxuries that any cruises usually provide, the same layout of the ship. There was nothing that piqued the Spider Head's interest. When he walked along the deck of the cruise, he spotted Kurapika standing on the bow of the ship. She was staring at the open ocean with such intensity that he could not help but to wonder what was in her mind. Deciding that prying on her thoughts was the most entertaining activity he could get at the moment, Kuroro approached her; his long coat trailing after him like a cast shadow.

She knew that he was approaching him, but she made no move to avoid him or whatever else. As long as he did not bug the life out of her, she would do nothing in retrospect. However, if he started annoying the living hell out of her, she would make sure that he learned the lesson. Apparently, Kuroro noticed that notion as if she had spoken it out loud, for he simply stood there next to her and gazed at whatever she was gazing at.

"It reminds me of the Hunter Exams days…" In the end, Kurapika found herself murmuring out loud.

"How old were you back then?"

Kurapika frowned as she tried to remember.

"Around sixteen, I suppose…"

She remembered that during the brief sea voyage—but quite an eventful one due to the storm that had hit the ship on the way and how she and Leorio had tried to rip each other's throats—it was Gon who had been standing on the bow of the ship, talking with the captain. Afterwards, the young boy had predicted the incoming storm.

_Gon…and Killua and Leorio…I wonder what they are doing right now…_ She wondered. She had not the chance to properly explain things to them. She had only met them briefly when she had been 'resuscitated' from half-dead by Yorn's antidote, because at that time she had rushed to search for Meta.

"Nice view, isnt' it?" An unfamiliar voice interrupted her train of thoughts.

Kurapika turned to her other side and found a man standing next to her. She frowned slightly upon seeing the man. He was well-dressed and had a charming smile plastered on his good-looking face. He beamed at her when she looked his way, but unfortunately for him she was unaffected by it (how could she get affected when she had had her dose of such smile from Kuroro Lucifer since years back). If the man was disheartened upon seeing Kurapika's disinterested attitude towards him, he did a god job in hiding it. He turned to Kuroro and nodded for acknowledgement. Kuroro returned the gesture curtly.

"Who are you?" Kurapika asked bluntly.

"Ah, yes. Where is my mannerism? My name is Heen." He extended his left hand—he was left-handed—towards Kurapika.

Heen was a tall man—taller than even Kuroro, perhaps about Hisoka's height—with dark curly hair the colour of mahogany and bright hazel eyes. His skin was a pretty shade of olive brown, and beneath his white suit Kurapika could easily notice his well-toned muscles. His oval face was well-defined, and he had a gentlemanly aura around him. Kurapika wondered vaguely whether that would be the impression she had if she had met Kuroro Lucifer for the first time in his average-man persona; like how Neon Nostrad had described to her years back.

Kurapika stared at the hand briefly before shaking it most reluctantly. The moment she touched his hand, she felt a jolt of electricity. Thinking that it was just a static electricity, Kurapika paid it no further heed. When she let go without saying a word, Heen looked a bit awkward.

"Em, may I know your name, Madam?"

"Madam?" Kurapika thoughtlessly echoed with a scrunched up facial expression. Heen blinked in confusion when he saw her reaction.

"Aren't the two of you married?" He asked innocently.

_Ah…_It finally clicked in her mind. With an apologetic smile, Kurapika offered her name: "Kurapika."

Despite her neutral expression, a whirlwind of recollection of the past events was actually going on in her head.

"_Looks like Kuroro Lucifer's woman have more tricks up her sleeves than we have anticipated." _

"_I am not his woman!"_

And now people started calling her 'Madam'. Honestly…

"Ah, such an exotic name."

…_say what?_

"And you, Sir?" Heen turned to Kuroro while offering a hand shake.

"Lucifer." Kuroro merely stated dryly without even bothering to shake Heen's hand.

Seeing that Mr. Lucifer did not seem to be very happy with him, Heen only smiled awkwardly at him and drew back his unwelcomed hand.

"You both have very unusual names. Where do you hail from?"

"We are not obliged to answer you, are we?" Kurapika stated while eyeing him evenly. There was something about this man that she did not like. He seemed harmless enough that he would not even hurt a fly, but something about him was simply…off.

"Well…" Heen seemed genuinely taken aback by Kurapika's unfriendly remark.

Kuroro did not make any efforts to actively partake in the conversation that Heen had forced on them. Like Kurapika, he had detected something suspicious about this man in white suit. For one, why did he decide to accost them—a couple who were humbly dressed and looked as if they had managed to board the luxurious cruise by the grace of Lady Luck—while there were others who seemed to be in his 'league'? Kuroro was wearing a long black coat that could be purchased in any towns with simple shirt and black pants, while Kurapika was donning a simple turtle-necked shirt and jeans. True that they might look interesting exactly because they were the different ones among the crowds, but people like him generally did not like mingling with the middle-class.

Okay, perhaps he was not the average stereotypical well-off man, but still… Kuroro's and Kurapika's instinct as experienced professionals told them that they ought to be wary of this Heen person.

"Do you know," Heen started again, suddenly putting a Cheshire Cat smirk on his visage, "that you are such an intriguing couple?"

"What?" Kurapika exclaimed as her jaws dropped most unceremoniously.

"Why, thank you." Kuroro said dryly as he was about to turn around while dragging Kurapika by her arm along with him. He was positive that he did not like this guy—and he was under absolutely NO obligation to act polite or anything with him.

"Let me tell you something interesting, as a token of our fated meeting." Heen continued while ignoring Kuroro's blatant enmity.

_Fated?_ The hair on Kurapika's arms and nape rose in disgust upon hearing that.

"Appreciated, but we don't need it." Kuroro said while walking away.

"A storm is coming." Heen still stubbornly continued. "Very, very soon."

While the content of his words seemed perfectly normal, especially when they were boarding a ship, there was something in his voice that made Kuroro and Kurapika stopped in their tracks and gave the man in white their full attention. Something glinted in Heen's eyes but whether it was malice or not, neither Kurapika nor Kuroro could properly discern it as their concentration was soon interrupted.

While the sky had been perfectly clear with only scarce clouds here and there, suddenly an ominously dark cloud hung above the cruise. Instead of a real storm as Heen had prophesied, however, thick fogs suddenly appeared and surrounded the ship. In no time, all sceneries in the radius of ten metres were obscured and it felt as if they had entered an altogether different dimension. The passengers were instantly plunged into a state of panic and they were scurrying all over the dock like frightened rabbits. Announcements by the captain of the cruise were echoing in the darkness as the poor man attempted to calm the crowds—although it was in vain. Cacophony filled the entire ship, deafening their sense of hearing.

Despite the chaos, Kuroro and Kurapika managed to assess the situation quite calmly and with level-head. Of course the first thing they did after seeing the fog surrounding the cruise—one that practically blinded them—was to turn questioningly to Heen. The young man was standing there with that blasted wide grin still pasted on his face. Wind suddenly rose, blowing everything astray and sending the crowds into further furore. Heen's white coat and curly mass of mahogany hair billowed wildly around him. His smile—one that seemed so harmless just a few moments ago—now seemed so sinister and laughing mockingly at them.

"Who are you?" Kurapika asked in a tight voice.

"Definitely not someone very virtuous." Kuroro said with perfectly composed voice.

The fog suddenly cleared, and the uproar dissipated. Soon enough, it became deathly still; not because of the appearance of a tall metallic fortress-like structure that was sailing like a gigantic warship, but because of the flotilla of minesweepers that were surrounding the cruise. Not a single soul on the luxurious and completely harmless cruise dared to make a sound for fear that one of those lethal weapons held by the soldiers on the minesweepers might just go off because of a single noise from them. Kuroro and Kurapika were silent for an altogether different reason, though.

Albeit very faint and subtly controlled, they could feel the air shifting the moment the fog cleared. The quality of the air was different, and they could practically feel the electricity in the air. It was as if the air itself was charged with ions and electromagnetic forces. They could not help but to wonder why they had not seen such a huge structure floating on an ocean surface before.

Heen suddenly turned towards them and gave a chillingly cheerful smile. His words; said as he spread his arms wide in a welcoming manner, were then the one that broke the deafening silence that had descended into the cruise. With the back-up of men that were armed to the teeth and the forbidding metallic edifice looming at the distant behind him, Heen was like the angel of doom personified.

"Welcome to Bensalem."

* * *

A few hours after Kurapika's and Kuroro's untimely arrival in Bensalem, on another part of the globe the Hunters Association Headquarter was rife with commotion, especially in Chairman Netero's office. A man with tiny stature ran into Netero's office while flailing a piece of document in his small hand. His face was bleached and his eyes were wild with panic.

"Chairman! Chairman! Chairman! Chair—"

"Cut it out, Maamen. I'm not deaf despite my age." Netero said lazily as he turned to his poor assistant while picking his ears.

"Oh, Chairman! This is urgent! It's a catastrophe! Calamity!"

"Quit being so overly dramatic and tell me what's wrong. Seriously, you've watched too much of those melodramatic soap opera" Netero cut him off while waving his hand impatiently.

Maamen stopped pacing about the room and took a very deep breath. Then, he dropped the bomb:

"We've lost track of the Kuruta."

At this, Netero raised his eyebrows and stared curiously at his small assistant.

"How and since when?" The Chairman asked calmly.

"Since a good several hours ago; to be exact 3 hours 32 minutes ago. What should we do? It's like her presence has completely vanished. The computer can't establish connection the tracking device we put in Kurapika. Even we can't track her Nen! Such thing has never happened before!" Maamen said while he began pulling his marshmallow-like cheeks in frustration.

Netero stroke his snow-white beard contemplatively. After mulling over it for several minutes, he then started speaking slowly.

"Actually…There are such strange disappearances. Where is the last of Kurapika's track?"

"Uuh…" Maamen looked down at the document he was holding. "The computer says it's at 30.80° N, 70.43° W. That's somewhere in the Eastern Sea…"

"Hmm…" Again, Netero stroke his beard as he closed his eyes and went deep in thought. After a while, he spoke again: "Looks like our dear Kuruta has gotten herself into deep troubles again. Well, well… Maamen, get me Cash, and then track down the last place where Kurapika did a transaction with her Hunter License."

"Roger!"

With that, the small man hurried out of the office to get things done. Netero then rubbed his hands together excitedly and murmured: "Things will be very lively now."

* * *

It was deathly still. There were no other sounds except for the faint clanging sound of footsteps falling on the metallic floor. The place was thoroughly soaked in the smell of metals and metals alone—and occasional whiff of oils, perhaps. The cotton sheet beneath her was cold and unfriendly, almost mocking to her even. The tables and the chairs stared at her laughingly. Really, what was the point of providing furniture when they took the initiative of binding her limbs so tightly she felt like she was a lamb ready to be sacrificed at any moment?

_Bensalem…_Kurapika repeated the name in her mind.

She knew the place, but she had never known the name up until a few hours ago. Chairman Netero had briefed her before about that place. He had told her to be especially careful when travelling by sea and air because of certain places that caused mysterious disappearances of both blimps and ships. He had particularly told her that certain oceans hosted most of the disappearances. Despite such outrageous disappearances, none of the government all over the world had managed to unravel the secrets of those disappearances. As the last Kuruta alive, she could not afford to get caught in such circumstances.

_But here I am in the heart of one of such places…_Kurapika berated herself despairingly.

She was not too surprised to find out that Bensalem was used as the Headquarters of slave-trading. Well, in some way it made sense but she still could not help but to marvel at the pure scientific technology applied to hide the place from the scrutiny of the world.

Kurapika fidgeted restlessly against the metallic wall of her quarter—she had been put in a separate quarter from Kuroro. They really knew how to knot the rope. Besides, she knew that struggles were futile since the rope was made of specially engineered synthetic fibres—as Heen had generously informed her following her capture in his hands.

Yes. Absurd as it might sound, Heen alone had really managed to capture both her and Kuroro Lucifer. She could not help but to wonder if that man was alright or not, considering the way he had been brought down by Heen. Bowing her head in defeat, Kurapika recalled the shameful moment of their capture.

xXx

Right after Heen had welcomed them to the so-called Bensalem place, another voice; coming from among the armed boats, had boomed with authority, making the hopeless crowds on top of the cruise winced in fear.

"Heen!"

The said man turned his attention to his caller—who was none other than a gruff man with wild thick bush of black beard that hid virtually half of his face. His muscles were astounding, with battle scars decorating it. The man was wearing a hunting vest and long pants with multiple pockets, and he was stuffed to the bottom with ammunition and a variety of weaponry. Circling one of his wrists was a metal bracelet with one red sphere on it; an accessory that looked so out of place for the brawny captain.

"Hello, captain. Isn't this a fine catch?" Heen said as he sauntered towards the edge of the bow with his hands in his pockets.

"Fine, ya said?" The captain practically spat his words. "Ya stupid brat! Sure, I could wager my monthly allowance that they're all filthy rich down to their underwear, but they'd make lousy slaves!"

At this words, the crowds gasped loudly and some began to break down in tears—notably the women. Loud murmurs quickly broke among the mass, but it was quickly subdued by one harsh bark from the rowdy captain of the 'pirates'.

"Aw, come on." Heen waved an impatient hand. "I do find some excellent people here, if you know what I mean."

He winked at the captain, and the gruff man's face suddenly lit up as if he was the one in desperate situation and was seeing a ray of hope or salvation.

"How many?"

"Two."

"Where?"

"Right here."

With that, Heen turned and gestured at both Kurapika and Kuroro with a jerk of his chin. Instantly, Kurapika's body tensed up while Kuroro gave no visible reaction whatsoever. A raised eyebrow was all he did.

"How powerful?"

"Hmmm…" Heen shifted his pose so that he supported the weight of his body with one leg. "I'd say one of the best you can ever ask for."

The captain gave laugh so powerful that some of his crews winced upon hearing such thunderous sound from up close. Kuroro and Kurapika exchanged quick glances at this. They had a rough idea on what the man in white was talking about. They were well aware that they were probably the only ones that could fight among the passengers of the cruise, but Heen and the captain seemed to be talking about another issue—Nen-users, they would guess.

"Good! Then secure them. The rest of us will take care of those useless small fries." With one movement of the brawny man's arm, the armed men readied themselves in firing position.

Screams of terror filled the entire ship then. Heen casually turned to Kuroro and Kurapika, while the two of them eyed the man very warily.

"Looks like you owe us a good deal of explanation." Kurapika was growling at this point.

"Hmm…" Heen put his index finger on his cheek innocently. "I suppose I do. Well then I will explain to you, with all due respect."

Before he could go on explaining, however, the armed men had pressed the triggers of their identical weapons and a gush of smoke sprouted from the nozzle of their weapons. Veil of bluish smoke quickly descended around the ship, enshrouding it in its baleful clutch. The screams of the passengers intensified, but soon enough they were disappearing one by one and sounds of bodies falling onto the deck followed afterwards.

_Sleeping gas!_ Kurapika thought as she covered her mouth and nose with her hand. She summoned forth her Nen chain instinctively.

Nothing happened.

Eyes wide with shock, she quickly glanced at Kuroro; who was covering his mouth and nose with his hand as well. The raven-haired man had the same bewildered look on his face.

"Ah, I see that you have noticed it. Wonderful!" Heen clapped his hands. He did not bother to protect himself from the invading sleeping gas. He seemed immune to it for one reason and another. "You see, the area around here is surrounded by a special electromagnetic field. Special because they are engineered in such a way that it can repress your _Nen._ As long as you are here, you can't access your Nen no matter what."

From the way Heen emphasised the word 'Nen' to Kurapika, it seemed as if he had a thorough understanding of the capacities of her Nen. Kuroro narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. He was beginning to understand the whole thing.

"You know that she is a Nen-user, and the extent of her abilities." Kuroro said calmly, though there was a ring of mild accusation in his voice. "But you don't know mine."

"Gosh!" Heen put his hands on his hips in a playful reproaching manner. "How do you know? I mean, how do you know that I know hers and not yours?"

"I suppose that should be my question. Or rather, I should ask you how do you know that I am a Nen-user _as well_?" Kuroro questioned him back.

At this point of time, Kurapika was only half-hearing the odd conversation. She saw the armed men climbing up the cruise and began dragging the limp bodies of the unconscious passengers, while they dutifully ignored the three of them. It seemed like they had entrusted the job of 'capturing' them to Heen alone. It made her wonder just how capable this shady-yet-gentlemanly young man was. He did not look like he was past 30 years old.

"Well," Heen scratched the back of his head. "I know the two of you are married…"

Kurapika still managed to twitch upon hearing this.

"And I know that she is a Nen-user. From the atmosphere between the two of you, I can only deduce that you ought to be somewhat similar to her. On par, or may be even stronger than her? I don't know for sure."

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kuroro flashed a glacial smile at him.

There was an underlying threat in his words, but whether Heen noticed it or not, it would remain unknown since the man in white showed no change in expression or demeanour. If anything, he remained irritatingly cheerful. Come to think of it, Heen and Kuroro were like opposing poles. One was stoic and cold, the other was lively. One was dressed in all black, the other was dressed in all white. One had pale skin, the other had dark skin. One had abysmal dark eyes, the other had glassy bright eyes.

"I'd love to, but—"

"Hand-shake."

Kurapika's firm voice broke Heen's words and the two men looked at her questioningly. The Kuruta was still staring at the last passenger being dragged off the cruise, yet she sounded as if she knew perfectly the direction of the conversation. The moment that particular passenger and his carrier were off the cruise, they would have the entire ship for themselves as a battle stage. She was preparing herself for it as she flexed her hands quietly. Kurapika then turned to face Heen with a fierce expression on her visage that was pale with anger.

"You learned about my Nen abilities through that hand-shake. He didn't shake your hand."

"Which means, it's probably Nen. Specialization type, most likely." Kuroro said while covering his mouth with his hand—his trademark thinking gesture. "An ability like Pakunoda's."

Kurapika's heart skipped a beat, but she did not show it in the outside.

"Oh, geez!" Heen exclaimed over-dramatically. "The two of you are just too much for me! Simply astounding, Kurapika. Bravo! You are right on the money." He winked at her; which made her shudders in disgust. "But unfortunately I'm not from Specialization type. I'm from the Manipulation type. You see, I am able to control electricity. That goes with the electrons in your body so—"

"Ah, so you manipulate the electrons from our body—or more specifically the electrons from the brains—to get information about us, correct?" Kuroro cut him off.

"Come to think of it, electrons in our brains do function as the memory storage of some sort." Kurapika said he recalled some distant biology lesson.

Heen's mouth was left hanging open like an abandoned gate. After a while, before drools started dripping from his unceremoniously open mouth, he shook his head in disbelief.

"Really, you people—"

"Small talk aside, what are you going to do now?" Kuroro asked deadpan, interjecting the young man in white yet again.

Not taking Kuroro's attitude as offensive to him, Heen merely shrugged noncommittally while saying: "Well, you heard my order. I'm supposed to 'secure' the two of you, but I'd like to avoid any unnecessary fights. Why don't you just come along with me and you'll have it easy?"

"What are you people going to do with us?" Kurapika asked pointedly. Though those men had blatantly announced that they were going to turn the rest of the passengers into slaves, they obviously had other plans for Nen-users.

"Se~~cret." Heen said in a sing-song voice.

Veins throbbed on Kurapika's temple and the corner of her mouth twitched irritably.

"Oh, come on." Heen said in almost a pleading manner as he spread his arms in a welcoming manner and started walking towards them. "Just come with me nicely and you'll find out eventually, sooner or later."

"Sorry, but we have no intention to just follow you around blindly." Kuroro stated firmly, though he still had his hands in the pockets of his long coat.

"In other words, you are not going down without any fights. Sheesh, you sure do like it the hard way, don't you?" Heen dropped his arms to his side while he kept advancing towards them in a steady pace.

"Call us independent." Kuroro said with a gelid smile as he finally took out his hands from his pocket with a Benz knife ready. While Kurapika had no weapons, she still spread her legs apart into a combative stance.

Heen sighed.

"I really don't want to do it." Despite saying so, a knife slipped smoothly from the sleeve of his white coat onto his open palm. He juggled the long knife lazily, showing that he really was not in the mood.

"Tough luck." Kurapika said as she clenched her fists.

A broad smile graced Heen's youthful face; that was the cue for the battle to start. For the men who were standing on the minesweepers afloat around to the cruise, they could only see shadows moving at impossible speed. Their eyes could not catch the movements of those three, but the captain could. He was a Nen-user as well, and so like others Nen-users who generally had so-called physical capabilities surpassing that of average human's even without their Nen activated, his trained eyes allowed him to see and discern the flow of the battle.

"Holy cow…" He murmured in open and almost envious admiration. "Those guys are definitely rare top-notch materials. Man, we really have to own them!"

"Uh, captain?" One of the men asked him fearfully. The gruff man was infamous for his violent tendencies, even towards his subordinates. "How is it going? Is Heen going to win?"

"Hrm!" The captain folded his arms. "You bloody nincompoops! You seriously think some Nen-user punks can beat Heen? Not only that they are unable to use their Nen here while _we_ can, that guy…"

Heen flew to the sky a few feet above the deck of the cruise, his form sailing gracefully as if he was doing an Olympic diving. Kuroro followed suit, his long black coat billowing around him like the wings of a massive black bird. When Heen swiped his knife at Kuroro, the latter manoeuvred his body in such a way that while he dodged the razor-sharp knife, he was able to direct his Benz knife at Heen's face. However, the younger man was able to avoid having a knife embedded into his face by using his non-weapon-wielding right arm as a shield. The Benz knife he was using was the same one as the one he used when fighting Silva Zaoldyck—the one treated with paralyzing poison.

Kuroro frowned deeply when the blade of his knife sliced through Heen's arm. When the blade supposedly sliced through the flesh smoothly without meeting any resistance, he could actually hear the grating sound that was characteristic of blade scraping metals. When Kuroro was still preoccupied by this little trivia, Heen's left hand suddenly discarded the knife he was wielding, shot forward and caught the wrist of Kuroro's hand that was holding the Benz knife.

"Got you." He said with a maniacal grin spreading across his face.

Before Kuroro had the chance to bat away Heen's hand, a jolt of electricity ravaged his entire body—and it did not last fleetingly. Heen steadfastly kept his clutch on Kuroro's wrist, and within that duration of time, he unrelentingly tampered with the flow of electrons within Kuroro's body. Suffice to say it was enough to knock even Kuroro Lucifer out cold, but Heen made sure that he did not go as far as debilitating the electrons that governed Kuroro's brains. After all, fixing the electrons in the brains would take a hellish of time for him, and it would do no good to have the raven-haired man crippled beyond repair.

Heen managed to mess with the electrons within Kuroro's body to the point of knocking him out before a kick was delivered beautifully to the back of his head. Because of the shock, he let go of his grip on Kuroro's wrist. Kuroro's limp body then dropped onto the deck of ship and remained motionless there. Heen landed on the deck smoothly, and so did Kurapika. She stood right in front of Kuroro's unconscious body with her legs braced apart. There was a fierce look on her face, and she had to give all she had to avoid getting her eyes turning scarlet. The last thing she needed to mess things up further was to let those slave traders know that she was a Kuruta.

"Sorry for what I did to your man, but I have no choice." Heen muttered while rubbing his sore head. "Don't worry, I didn't permanently damage him or anything, just—"

"You weren't supposed to be able to use your Nen here." She said accusingly.

"Oh, that. Well you see, the employees here are equipped with this bracelet that protects us from the electromagnetic field so that we can use our Nen to subdue people like—"

As he explained good-naturedly to Kurapika, Heen raised his right wrist that had the said bracelet—the same one as the captain had—on the wrist; which was the same arm that had the Benz knife stuck in it. Before Heen had the time to finish his sentence, Kurapika had dashed towards him and stretched out her hand. She grabbed the hilt of the Benz knife that was still jutting from Heen's arm. Putting all the raw strength she had, she twisted and pulled the knife downwards, effectively severing the man's arm from the impact. The dismembered arm fell to the deck of the ship, but while by right she was supposed to see bloody tendons and exposed bones from the severed end of the arm, she saw wires dangling out and sparks of electricity coming from the severed wires.

"Oh dear…" Heen muttered as he looked at the wasted arm disappointedly. "It's not easy to fix this arm, you know."

Kurapika's eyes widened in disbelief.

"You are—"

Down below, the captain; who had been observing the fight all the time, smirked so widely that even his beard showed a curve, finished his long suspended sentence: "…a half-cyborg."

When her mind was still numb from the surprise, Heen had taken hold of her shoulder with his intact arm and drove his knee to her solar plexus; knocking the blessed air out of her. Releasing his grip on her shoulder, he then delivered a clean blow to the nape of her neck, sending her into utter oblivion.

xXx

"That treacherous man!"

Frustrated by that memory alone, Kurapika banged the metallic wall behind her with her hand so hard that the room actually shuddered upon impact. At the very same time when Kurapika did this reckless act, the only door in the room swished open and a man in white stepped in.

"Wow, relax, Kurapika. You won't do you any good by bashing your head in like that." Heen said with surprised look. "Besides, the wall can never be broken by raw strength alone. They are reinforced by—"

"Shut your trap! What do you want?" Kurapika snarled belligerently.

Seeing that Kurapika's eyes practically shot fire and she looked like she could breathe fire—or worse, ruby laser—at any give time, Heen decided to wisely shut his mouth and quietly close the door behind him. He stepped into the room and put the platter that he was carrying on the table.

"I'm here to deliver your food, that's all." He said with a sigh.

"What are you now, some delivery boy?" Kurapika said spitefully.

"I choose to do this on my own accord." Heen said with a friendly smile, and he sat down on the chair. "Well, aren't you hungry?"

Veins popped again on Kurapika's temple.

"You imbecile! Even if I'm hungry, how can I eat when you tie my legs and my hands like this?" She screeched while brandishing her tied hand.

"Oh, right." Heen smacked his palm with his other hand.

He took the platter of food from the table and approached Kurapika. She visibly flinched away when the man squatted down in front of her with the platter of food before him. The food did smell so good, and she really was hungry. Only God knew how long had it been since she had eaten anything at all. With a broad smile of innocence—one that Kurapika was so itching to punch—Heen took a spoonful of the food and brought it close to her mouth.

"Then I'll just spoon feed you." He said lightly.

The veins on her temple might have burst out of uncontained wrath. With so much force, Kurapika head-butted the young man on the forehead. Attacked at such an awkward angle and with so much power, Heen could not help but to stumble backwards. Only by his dexterity alone he managed to save the food from spilling all over the place. Before he even had the time to whine at her vicious 'comeback', Kurapika was already giving him a huge piece of her mind.

"Spoon feed me? Don't be LUDICROUS, you LUNATIC man! Don't EVER come near me again, much less TOUCH me unless you want me to BITE OFFF your hand! You FREAK!"

As Kurapika continued yelling, the guards outside her quarter could not help but to glance at each other worriedly.

"Ya think Heen survive that?"

"No idea. She sure has quite a pair of lungs. Rivallin' the captain, I'd wager." The man shuddered at the thought. Imagine if the two of them; Kurapika and the captain, engaged in a shouting competition. Their eardrums would be wasted in seconds.

"Guess we'll just hafta endure 'till she's gone through the Reprogramming."

"BEGONE!"

Another ear-wrenching scream from the absolutely pissed off Kuruta inside the room, and Heen was sent scrambling out of the room with the food still intact in his hand. He closed the metal door behind him hurriedly so as to mitigate the impact of Kurapika's yell. As he leaned his back against the door, he could not help but to notice the pitying look from the guards.

"She even manages to get ya outta the room when she's all tied up?" One of the guards said dubiously at the door behind Heen.

"Begone…She said 'begone'…She said it like I'm some kind of evil spirit…" Heen muttered almost tearfully.

"Our lady-killer here meets his opponent, I'd say!" The other guard said, but nonetheless he patted Heen's shoulder sympathisingly. "She's one helluva lioness."

"You bet…"

Heen felt like crying already when he heard the curses that Kurapika directed at him. Not that she used dirty words, but the way she phrased those curses—"I'll rip you into unrecognisable shreds.", "I'll make sure to kill you until you can't reincarnate anymore.", sentences along that line—made him feel like he really was cursed to death. Not to mention the homicidal aura that she was emitting like she was a flaming torch; they were so intense he could literally feel the air charged by the potentially mind-crippling negative vibe.

With a sigh, Heen passed the platter of virtually untouched food to one of the guards.

"Here. Give it to her when she has calmed down."

"Me?" The guards exclaimed with dread.

Without bothering to give the poor guard any suggestions on how to feed the currently murderous young woman without getting cursed to death, Heen sauntered away with his shoulders slumping. He suddenly felt so tired. That young woman was really so hard to handle.

Purposefully, Heen walked down the corridor through the endless turns and twists of the metal-covered alleys with pipes attached on the walls and the ceilings, until he finally reached another quarter. It was significantly quiet, and there was no menacing aura coming from the room at all. Heen was grateful for it, but inside he knew that while he had been facing the flame of Hell in Kurapika's cell, here he could experience winter in the frozen Hell itself. With a sigh, he looked at the guards and they gave him the approving nod.

Opening the sliding mechanical door slightly and noiselessly—by screening his palm print on the panel next to the door—Heen peered into the room. He could see the raven-haired man sitting up on the bed with his back against the cold metal wall. Although his fringe dropped into a curtain that obscured his eyes, he could see that they were closed. His whole body posture indicated that he was in a meditative state, the air around him calm and composed. So tranquil it was that Heen felt sucked into that trance. Vaguely he wondered how the man managed so sit up while normally it would take a few days for people whose electrons he had tampered with to be able to twitch a finger at all. For that reason, they had not bothered to tie him up like they did to Kurapika. Well, he was a Nen-user but still…

"What do you want?"

_And he is already able to coherently speak. What a monster…_Heen thought as he took one stop into the room.

"Just a small talk." Heen said amiably as he waltzed into the room.

A gush of wintry non-Nen aura breezed past him, emitted from none other than Kuroro Lucifer. Heen stopped on his track, frozen in no time. He gulped hard. Really, none of this couple was anything close to easy to deal with.

"You know," Heen took a seat on the chair provided there. "I've just come from _her_ cell."

No reaction from Kuroro.

"It seems, Mr. Lucifer," Heen continued, "that your wife really does have a quick temper. She was cursing me to my death like there's no tomorrow. She said—"

"Your point?"

The iciness in Kuroro's voice froze the words in Heen's throat. Despite so, he was actually somewhat at ease once he knew that Kurapika was well—too well, perhaps? After a while of heavy silence that threatened to slice at him, Heen finally cleared his throat and leaned back in his occupied chair. He studied Kuroro.

_Looks like talking short phrases is all he can do right now. Getting up into that position probably took all he has. Seems that he can hardly even open his eyes just yet…_ Heen thought as he evaluated the situation.

"Well, aren't you curious about what kind of place is this Bensalem?"

When there was no visible reaction from the raven-haired man, Heen took it as a 'yes'. Smiling broadly like a child who was given permission by his parents to chatter, he adjusted his position into a more comfortable one and started rambling about the place.

"Well then, first of all, this place is the Headquarter of a slave-trading organization. With the electromagnetic barrier, we manage to hide ourselves from the scrutiny of the world vis-à-vis an optical illusion created by the barrier. Also, if you haven't noticed, this is a floating fortress so we don't have a fixed spot. There are other branches as well, all over the world. Those blimps and ships that stray into the area around us will lose all form of communication with the outside world. Of course the blimps will crash into the sea, but they will secure everyone alive for sure. And then—"

"There is someone on-board to inform the Headquarter of the position of the targets, isn't there?" Kuroro interjected softly.

Heen stared at him as if he had grown another head.

"How do you know? Oh, never mind that. Yes, you are correct. Some employees, like me, are given the task to board our targeted vehicles and tell the Headquarter of the direction of the targets, so that the floating fortress can position itself in the pathway of the targets." He smiled at him broadly—not that Kuroro could see, and not like he cared anyway. "We will then separate the normal humans from the Nen-users. The average humans will be brainwashed and inculcated into being a mindless slave who have nothing but loyalty for their masters. As for the Nen-users…"

Heen stopped, as if hesitant to say anything further.

"They will become like you." Kuroro finished for him, his voice as calm as the surface of a still water.

A soft chuckle came from Heen, but there was a self-pitying ring to it.

"Yes. Like us, you and your lady will have your memories erased but you will retain your knowledge about your Nen—the process is called the Reprogramming. You will be given this same bracelet like mine; one that allows you to access your Nen even in this place. At the same time, to prevent mutiny, they will install another device into you. Look here, Mr. Lucifer."

Cracking open his eyes slowly, because it really did take effort to do so—his whole body was generally still numb and his nerves were somewhat lethargic—Kuroro looked at Heen. The latter had buttoned down his shirt and was revealing his bare chest. On the spot above where his heart lay was a strange contraception that seemed to have half-fused with his flesh. It was encased in a hard metal, so it seemed that nothing could penetrate it at all.

"This is our Collar, and it really is a collar in all sense possible. While Nen-users are expendable for the organization, it is rare to find Nen-users like me who can infiltrate people's system to dig out information about them. They need people like me to sniff out Nen-users among the people. As such, I was installed with this. If we betray the organization, they can extinguish our lives by pressing one mere button—turning our heart into a miniature firework. Pretty gross, huh?"

Kuroro said nothing and appeared eternally disinterested. After seeing Feitan and his handiworks, he could not be surprised by anything described as 'gross' in terms of murders. Feitan was one of the worst when it came down to grotesque murder, after all. If anything, he kept a steady look at Heen. He looked directly into his clear hazel eyes, searching for explanation.

"Why telling me all this?"

Heen's smile faltered slightly, before it settled into a forebodingly sorrowful one. It was disturbing to see such perturbed smile on that sickeningly cheerful man's face. He got up from his seat and sat next to Kuroro on his bed. Kuroro had gone back to closing his eyes. The way his body was, it required extra effort to move a single muscle, so he wished to save his energy for faster general recovery. Heen leaned against the metal wall, his body involuntarily shuddered at the cold touch. Although a good quarter of his body had been turned into cyborg because of damages he sustained in his missions, his human flesh still retained their sensitivity. If anything, they were more sensitive than before because of the harsh comparison between the metal body parts with the natural ones.

Heen looked around the barren cell. It was empty and desolate, build just for temporary accommodation for people like Kurapika and Kuroro—potential powerful dog for the organization. In due time, they would have to undergo the Programming…

"I remember my past…" Heen whispered to Kuroro softly. "Or to be precise, I stole them from the other employees here."

While Kuroro gave no outward indication that he was listening to him at all, he did listen intently to Heen's sentences; words by words. He knew that quirky man was up to something, and it was not necessarily for the benefit of the organization.

"Bits by bits, I remember who I was before this life as the dog of the organization. I remember…" Heen squeezed shut his eyes with a deep frown.

Silence descended between them but it was not an awkward one. After a long while, Heen heaved a heavy sigh and straightened up. He turned to Kuroro, but the man was still in the previous position. He looked like he was sleeping, but Heen knew better.

"After you have recovered, the two of you will be sent for Reprogramming. Under normal circumstances, Kurapika should have been sent first since she sustains no injuries, but the higher-ups have decided that the two of you will be better off when paired up. So they'll 'reprogram' the two of you together as a pair."

"…You were the one who suggested it." Kuroro said with level voice.

"Sheesh, you are really too much. So what if I did?" Heen put his hands akimbo on his hips.

"Why?"

Although Kuroro was not looking at the main in white overall, he could feel the contemplative air around him. Did he detect sympathy in the atmosphere?

"I'm doing it for myself..." Heen said in a whisper with a tinge of irony in his voice. Then, suddenly he laughed and shrugged. "You know, in the end it's 'every man for himself'."

Turning on his heels, Heen walked towards the door. When he opened the door slightly, he paused and said over his shoulders:

"I'll check on you again. After all, I'm supposed to be fixing you. Sorry for that."

Then Heen disappeared behind the metal door as it slid close soundlessly. As Kuroro processed the information that Heen had willingly given him—it was so much of information that he began suspecting the man's motif behind his actions—he could not help but to think:

_He is going to be a traitor._

The new question was: would it benefit him and Kurapika? Or the other way round?

* * *

A few days after the whole catastrophic incident in the Eastern Sea, peace was maintained in one particular town in a remote mountain, with the Prancing Pony Inn as lively as per normal. Fino; the sole heiress of that place, was busy serving the guests when a trio entered the room and the one with spiky black hair squealed upon seeing her.

"FINO!"

Surprised by the sudden loud greeting, Fino turned on her heels to face the newcomers. The moment she laid her eyes on them, her visage brightened considerably. Forgetting to excuse herself from her guests—they were regulars, anyway—she rushed towards them and hugged the cheerful spiky-haired boy.

"GON! And Killua. And Leorio, too!"

"Yo." Killua said while giving her his characteristic cheeky grin.

"Why do I feel like I'm just an extra?" Leorio muttered, but nonetheless smiled brightly at her.

"Welcome, welcome! What do you want for today?" Fino said as she led them to one of the empty tables.

"Actually, we are here for Kurapika. Is she back with Meta yet?" Gon asked innocently.

Fino frowned at this.

"No, she's not back yet. I think Shalnark told me that, by some accidents, Kuroro's friend-or-something took Meta along and they are going to fetch him. Or soooomething along that line. Why?"

"Well…" Leorio scratched the back of his head. "The problem is none of us can contact Kurapika. So we thought she might be here."

"Hmmm… That's odd. I haven't been able to contact her as well, but that usually happens when she's on-duty." Fino said, referring to Kurapika's Hunter jobs. "But I'm pretty sure Shalnark said that Kuroro's with her. Shall we ask him, then?"

Without waiting for response from the trio, Fino waltzed towards the backyards. Following her curiously, they could not help but to exchange glances at each other. When they reached the backyards, they were greeted by very surprising scenery. There was a vast garden just behind the inn, and there were numerous variety of plants there—herbs for medicines and cooking, flowers, and others. While they were still gaping like idiots, Shalnark was already approaching them.

"I knew it's you guys. What's up?" Shalnark greeted them amiably. Leaning on his shoulder was a hoe.

"Is this—you are gardening?" Killua asked in disbelief.

Shalnark pouted. "So what? This is a good exercise."

"Shal, have you heard from either Kurapika or Kuroro?" Fino asked as she checked the nearby plants.

"Hm? No. In fact, I haven't been able to contact Danchou at all. But that's just normal for him. Sometimes he can be out-of-touch for months, for all we know. As for Kurapika, well I don't usually contact her." He said with all honesty.

Kurapika's trio best friends exchanged worried glances now. Shalnark noticed this.

"Something's wrong?"

"Well, you see—" Gon started, but before he could start explaining, Shalnark's phone rang.

"Oh, excuse me. Can you hold this for me for a while?" Shalnark said while handing the ordinary-looking hoe to Leorio.

Leorio took hold of it but the moment Shalnark let go, Leorio's arms were dragged down as if he was holding several tonnes weight as he let out a totally ungraceful "Uoh!". The hoe hit the ground and it practically sank into soil. Gon's and Killua's eyes almost popped out of their sockets, but Fino only laughed.

"That's one of Shalnark's personal tools here."

_Personal tools? He used this freaking heavy hoe for gardening? Holy cow!_ Leorio thought as he struggled to get the hoe out of the soil. _He can blast away a head easily with one swing of this thing!_

"Hello? Is that you, Lucian?" Shalnark said as he answered the call.

_[Hey, Shalnark. Have you heard anything from Kurapika or Lucifer?]_

All of them heard Lucian's words and all of them went into deathly silent. After roughly several minutes had passed, next it was Gon's phone that rang. Clumsily, Gon took out his phone and answered it.

"Hello?" A pause, and then a delightful "President Netero!"

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ A new chapter on adventure, I suppose? This Bensalem is actually inspired from the Bermuda Triangle, and it's rumoured that the lost continent Atlantis is also located in the Bermuda Triangle. Bensalem is just one of the names given to Atlantis, or so I found in the internet. _

_As for Heen, he is a character that I created on the spot. Perhaps I should say that I picture him like Tyki Mikk from -Man? Quite an unpredictable and manipulative man, I'd say, though he seemed so straight forward. To be honest, I had fun writing him. What do you think of him, readers?_

_I know this chapter is freaking long… Can't help it =P_

_Oh, you guys can relax since they won't be going to the same ol' places. New places will be introduced here, and some other OCs that has only appeared fleetingly may undergo some more developments here. I try not to invent more OCs since there're already so many in this fic -_-_

_PS: (esp to __**MARYLOVER**__) sorry if there's no hint of romance in this chapter, but there'll definitely be romance-of-some-sort in the coming chapter X_

_**Next: **__Heen was definitely a shady person. He seems to have a completely different plan for Kurapika and Kuroro, outside the organization's agenda. Did it have any significance that he remembered his past? What would become of Kuroro and Kurapika? Also, did Netero have any plans in mind now that he had contacted Cash, Gon, and co., with Shalnark coincidentally present there?_


	13. Chapter 11: Mercy

_**Disclaimer: **__Will it ever be mine? Nah…I shall be realistic =P_

_**Story so far:**__ Kuroro and Kurapika were captured in Bensalem and they were about to have their memories erased—or rather, reprogrammed. Would that really happen? That aside, Heen seemed to have another plan that was necessarily unparallel to the organization's agenda._

* * *

**Chapter 11**

_**MERCY**_

* * *

"Seriously…" Heen was near tearful. "Kurapika is really scary…"

"So that is really her handiwork." Kuroro said with bored tone. _So she's alive and kicking,_ he thought absentmindedly.

A deep scratch was embedded on Heen's pale cheek. He had again attempted to persuade her to calm down—while delivering her food again—but she would not. If anything, she even started clawing at him the moment he released the bond around her wrists. Right then, Heen was treating Kuroro with aligning the messed up electrons in his body. Heen could not help but to marvel at how fast the electrons had realigned themselves for recovery, although it was still not full recovery. The way things were, all electrons would be in their initial state. In one week, he would be back in his prime condition, even without Nen.

"You really are a monster…" Heen could not help but to mutter.

"Pardon?"

"I could feel it. From what the electrons told me about you, you are no ordinary humans. Or even Nen-user. There's something in you that doesn't usually exist in normal humans."

A cold smile tugged at Kuroro's lips. Of course. That would be Ishtar's blood; her essence that would forever stay in his and Kurapika's system forever. He gave a challenging look at Heen, but said nothing to satisfy the man's curiosity. Heen pursed his lips at this.

"Your dear darling is also the same, although she has less of that 'thing' in her." Heen said as he withdrew his Nen that enveloped Kuroro.

Kuroro craned his neck as he exercised his muscles. They were more or less fine, and the crippling numbness had gone from his body except for the occasional stiffness. However, the moment he could start moving his limbs, they had chained him to the bed with a long cuff attached between his ankle and the leg of the bed. He had tried wrenching the metal cuff with bare hand before, but the metal would not budge. There was not even a single measly dent on it. It really was a first-rate enforced metal.

"But honestly, why is she always in such a bad mood?"

_Who would be in a good mood when confined in a place like this?_ Kuroro thought while rolling his eyes discreetly.

"I suppose she's just desperate." Kuroro shrugged, but there was a subtle calculative light in those obsidian eyes—one that was so faint that Heen failed to notice it.

"Desperate for escape? Impossible, I'm telling you. It's—"

"It's about her four-years-old son." Kuroro interjected. "It's been a while since the last time she saw him."

"He's alone at home or…?" Heen asked cautiously.

"Well, technically he was kidnapped. But I'd say that he ran away on his own."

"Why would he do such thing? And where were you when that boy ran away?" Heen questioned him reproachfully.

"I wasn't there. If anything, he ran away from his mother to find me."

When Kuroro said the last sentence, he could not help but to recall the time when Meta had reached out to touch his face and uttered the word 'Daddy' to him. That particular look on that young face was something he could not forget. The image was burned on his retina, recorded in his memory persistently. Something touched him at that time, but he had not really dwell on it—or rather, had refused to.

Heen was speechless. His mouth went ajar, and the look on his face had to be so ridiculous that Kuroro even smiled amusedly as he turned to look at the younger olive-skinned man.

"Surprised? We are not as compatible as you think we are."

"B—but…"

While Heen could not utter a single word in retaliation, he could still recall the day when he first spotted them on-board the cruise. When they were standing side-by-side on the deck of the ship, he could virtually see it; their tie with each other that was thicker even than blood. Something about them made him jealous for a moment. That was also the reason why he had approached them in the first place. It just happened that he discovered them to be Nen-user after the innocent hand-shake with Kurapika.

Going out of Kuroro's quarter with a dreamy/confused look on his face (the guard even had to ask him worriedly: "Heen, are you okay? Did he do something to you?"—which he had dismissed with a stuttering "I—I'm fine…"), Heen walked aimlessly along the corridor. He could not believe it! They seemed so compatible, especially as he had observed during their fight on the deck of the cruise on the day of their capture. It was like they had done that kind of fight many times before that it became an ingrained routine in their heads. To think that they had been living separately for years until a few days ago was hard to believe…

_Wait a minute, why was he telling me all those?_ Heen thought while cocking his head sideways. Needless to say, Kuroro had of course opted out the hard-to-believe details that concerned the genies and other mythological creatures.

When Heen came to his logical sense, he found himself standing in front of Kurapika's cell.

"What, Heen, you still wan' more of ta' girl?" One of the guards looked at him as if he had gone insane.

Heen scratched the back of his head, not understanding it either. Perhaps it was Mr. Lucifer's talk about his rocky relationship with his wife—he was still blissfully unaware that it was just a phony excuse by the conspiring pair—that brought him to her cell?

"I'll just check on her again." Heen shrugged as he reached out for the palm sensor of the door.

"Godspeed." The other guard muttered sincerely.

Heen slipped into the room briskly, leaving the tail of his white coat trailing behind him like a dissipating mist. He closed the door quietly, and was surprised to find Kurapika thoroughly composed and quiet. Usually, the moment he poked his nose into the quarter, he would be assaulted by relentless murderous aura—non-Nen, mind you—from her. This time, Kurapika only looked at him with steadfastly calm eyes. Her turtleneck shirt had been changed with a simple shirt—by Heen's (underhanded) order to the guards to give her a fresh outfit since he had said somewhat disdainfully that she looked so stuffed with that turtleneck.

Unlike Kuroro; who only had one of his ankles chained to the bed, Kurapika had both wrists chained to the metallic pipes on the wall using long cuffs, while both her ankles were cuffed to the legs of the bed. It was an extra measure taken to counter her violent tendencies—though it was more of Heen's precaution for his own safety. Kurapika seemed to have a certain grudge against him.

"Hey." He said softly.

"What do you want?" Kurapika asked edgily.

Heen gave a small smile. Somehow, this time she was not so intimidating.

"Lucifer told me…about your son."

A glare from Kurapika, but then those oceanic blue eyes softened considerably.

"What did he say?" She asked softly. That was a tone closest to being civilised that Heen had ever received from Kurapika.

"He said he wished he had spent more time with him. If you ask me, from the way he spoke about this matter, I'd say that he'd thought of the boy from time to time."

Kurapika ducked her head low so that her fringe obscured her face from Heen's view. Something that was akin to relief was blooming inside her chest, but she tried to appear neutral about it.

_But why did he tell all these to this freak, of all people?_ Kurapika could not help but to ponder.

The more she thought of it, the more she got irritated by that man and his quirks. It had escaped Kurapika's thinking that Kuroro had done that purposely to tactically earn whatever sympathy that Heen might afford them. Heen had not been wrong, however, to deduce that Kuroro did think of Meta from time to time—although the extent of it was still questionable at the moment.

"So what are you getting at?" Kurapika asked, now becoming annoyed.

Heen shrugged, and then he took a seat on the chair that was essentially useless for the real occupant of the cell.

"I'm not sure myself. It's just that…I know how it feels." He clasped his hands tightly. "Maybe…you and I are actually in the same boat."

Kurapika looked at him with bewilderment clear on her face.

"What are you talking about?"

Flashing a thin yet not-unkind smile, Heen told her of the facts regarding the Bensalem; the same one that he had told Kuroro before—about the Reprogramming, about the Collar, about the Nen-users, about the mindless dolls of slaves. When he was done, the colour was completely drained from Kurapika's face.

"Such atrocity…Are you people even remotely _humane_?" She whispered in complete revulsion.

With a charming smile, Heen shook his head. "That's not the point, Kurapika."

"Then what—!"

"I told you that us; the dogs of the organization, had our memories erased, correct?" Heen said while waving one finger as if he was giving instruction. "But I have recollected mine, through this Nen ability of mine. At first it was by pure accident, but then I started actively collecting my memories back."

"But how do you collect _your_ memories from _others_?" Kurapika asked with a frown.

"Oh, I wasn't specific enough. Sorry. I've been collecting them from those people who are in-charge of deleting our memories—the Reprogrammers. Bits by bits, I gather all the pieces together by touching them."

"…Is it complete?" Kurapika asked warily. Somehow, she did not like the direction of the conversation.

"Of course not!" Heen said with a laugh.

_What the…_

"Some of those Reprogrammers have better memories, others have completely forgetful heads. Some of my memories are lost in theirs, but at least I have the essential ones. If anything, important memories usually last longer, yes?" Heen leaned forward. At this, Kurapika drew back.

"You are telling me too much. What do you want?"

"Ah, the same thing that your dear husband asked me. So I shall give you the same answer I gave him."

Kurapika held her breath.

"See~~cret."

A pillow was hurled at Heen, but he managed to dodge it easily. He quickly took his leave when Kurapika started screaming her heads off at him, though. When he slipped out of the room and before the door slid close, even the guards could hear the "Go and die, you—" until the scream was fortunately cut off the moment the door was closed. The cell was, after all, sound-proof.

"Ya really like messin' with ta' girl, dontcha?" One of the guards asked with narrowed eyes. His eyes showed what he had in mind: _Ya sure have some loose screws in yer head or sumthin'._

"Can't help it." Heen said merrily. "After all, things tend to be really dull around here, with all those serious-and-no-fun superiors we have. Sometimes, I think I'll just die out of the boredom."

"Stop complainin', ya spoiled brat. Ya have it better, y'know? Us low-paid guards hafta stand here all day long 'till our legs turn to stone while the lot of ye get to go outside once in a while." One of them; the older one, scowled unhappily.

Heen stopped and pondered about it, after finally giving the guard a huge stupid grin.

"I suppose you're right. Sorry, I'll start counting my blessings. See you around, old man."

"Stop callin' me old man, ya brat!" He flailed his bayonet at him, but made no move to chase after the laughing young man.

"He sure takes thing lightly. Is that personality his original one, or was it engineered through the Programming?"

"How the hell should I know? Not that I care, anyway. It's good to have 'im around. Like he said, it can be really deathly borin' here."

Although there was a spring in his footsteps and there was a light smile forever etched on that cheerful visage, and although people greeted him kindly enough, deep inside his heart Heen was hiding the true side of his heart: despair.

His steps gradually became heavier and the light-hearted countenance started to fade away, leaving only a severely forlorn expression. He stopped when he was right in front of a massive metallic gate that was a good several inches thick. The gate reached the high ceiling of the chamber, and it was protected with layers of security means. He was standing at the entrance to the Heart of Bensalem; the very place that sustained the existence of the Headquarter. Despite being the core of the floating fortress, there was no guard stationed there because that place was equipped with the most advanced security system the organization could afford. There was no need for frail human guards or even automatons to guard the place—the place could guard itself just fine.

The air was cold, and white puffs of his breath were easily spotted. He put a hand on the dark metal door, and then leaned forward to touch the cold metal with his forehead. Nothing could be felt through the inanimate gate. After a while, a dead whisper escaped from Heen's lips that had turned bluish from the cold:

"Bia…"

* * *

"Anansi…"

"Hm?"

"When will they reach here?"

"Well… I suppose you still have to wait for another few days. A week or so, perhaps?" Anansi answered softly and almost sympathetically.

The blond boy let out a frustrated groan. He had been rolling among the mountains of pillows and cushions that were scattered all over the place. The tile was cold, so he avoided lying on the floor. He had stacked the cushions, had arranged them into patterns on the floor, had done this and that, but still he was restless. Anansi, who had been observing him closely, knew that the boy was dead bored.

"Bored?"

"Absolutely." Meta confirmed with sulking voice.

Anansi chuckled.

"Would you like to meet someone? She knows your parents; especially your father, quite well."

"I want!"

With that, Meta jumped to his feet and ran to Anansi; who then scooped him up in his lean arms in a smooth, graceful movement. He then walked towards one corner of the chamber and seemed to be swallowed whole into the dark recess of the room. All the while when they were in the embrace of darkness, Meta never showed any hints of fear. It was never darkness that he feared.

_Ishtar?_ He inquired softly at his invisible friend.

There was a long pause before Ishtar answered him with very soft voice that was almost inaudible; one that sounded as if she was talking to him from metres away.

_**Yes?**_

_How come you are terribly quiet these few days? _The boy asked. In truth he wanted to ask her why she had so often disappeared without telling him anything as of late. She had also grown somewhat distant. It was as if she was so preoccupied with something else that she was no longer paying all her attention to the little boy, and Meta was uneasy with it.

Ishtar had not answered straight away. When she answered, however, it was a very vague answer that did not even remotely answer Meta's question.

_**I'll be here for you, sweetheart,**_ she said in a doleful whisper. _**For now…**_

It was a pity that Meta had not heard the last bit of her words as he was distracted by Anansi; who was introducing him to a new person—an old person with hunching back and cackling, witch-like laughter.

* * *

Kuroro flexed his wrists skilfully, feeling the perfect synchronicity of his body with his will. Since Heen had messed up his electrons, he had had a terrible time trying to gain full control of his own body. He was not used to being unable to utilise his body to the fullest extent as he desired, but now that he had fully recovered; ironically thanks to Heen's constant treatment—though it was for the purpose of making him presentable for the officers of the Bensalem—he could start making his move.

It had been approximately a week since their capture. From whatever information he could derive from Heen's incessant seemingly-harmless rambling, he deduced that soon enough they would be sent for Reprogramming—that was the moment _he_ fully recovered. While he knew that he and Kurapika had a thoroughly strong mental strength, in Bensalem only pure science prevailed. Even people like them could not stand before the might of genetic engineering—especially when they had absolutely no access to their Nen. Despite his confidence with his capability, Kuroro Lucifer was still a man with realistic view of the situations he was in. No matter what, they had to avoid getting into the Reprogramming chamber.

Kuroro looked at the metal sliding door that could only be opened by scanning the palm print of the employees; such a troublesome contraption. After a full week of observation, he had memorised the schedule of the delivery of his food. Lucky for him, they actually went into the cell to put his food on the table; quite civilised for treating a soon-to-be slave. He knew how to get out of this wretched place, but if possible he had no desire to create an uproar. He would like to avoid the avoidable as much as possible, and then he would take care of the rest once he was outside of Bensalem.

A few hours passed. Soon, it would be the time for the guard to bring in his food. Kuroro looked down at the Solomon Ring that was still in his possession. While all of his weapons had been confiscated by the organization, they had thought that rings like that was harmless, especially after detecting no Nen from it.

What a huge mistake.

* * *

"So, what do we do now? It's been one week, Chairman."

A tall, lean man with dark tanned skin and coal black dread-lock hair groused impatiently while tapping the floor with his foot. Fortunately, the floor was covered in thick sound-proof carpet so his incessant foot-tapping had not yet driven someone to insanity. This particular man had been very grouchy for the past few days since he was so itching to get into actions. Waiting was never ever his forte.

"Ohoho… Relax, Cash. I know of what you are capable of, and I am the one who invited you into this team. You'll get to be in the front line, I guarantee you. No need to be hasty." Netero said light-heartedly as he stroke his white bushy beard.

The corner of Cash's mouth twitched irritably upon seeing Netero's laid-back attitude. He leaned down to Maamen and whispered to him:

"I'm surprised you can survive while having this slacker of an old man as your boss."

"Well, makes you wonder, right?" Maamen chuckled nervously.

Cash studied Maamen's stature from head to toe, and it did not take too long since Maamen was so astoundingly small. The muscular man then began to wonder whether or not Maamen's head resembled the shape of a potato because he had banged his head against the side of a table out of frustration towards his superior.

"Ahem!" Netero cleared his throat. "Well, from what information I managed to gather, it is wiser to give at least a week of time period from the disappearance of the Raifuku Maru cruise before we commence our plan. In case Kurapika is injured, that will allow sufficient time for her to recuperate before we strike. In the event that we strike and she notices, she may act accordingly without being hindered by her injuries."

"What if something happens, like, if she dies—touchwood—within that one week?" Cash asked with a frown.

"That is highly unlikely." Netero said confidently.

"How can you be so sure?" Cash asked somewhat accusingly.

"She is with someone there; who is hell bent in keeping her alive. Injuries will be the most she can get, I'll say." Netero said with a wise smile, but Cash's hands were itchy to punch that smug smile off his face—though he knew that he would not be able to so much as laying a finger on the Chairman.

Ignoring Cash's frustrated glare at him, Netero turned around and observed the calm ocean below the flying blimp. They had been patrolling the Eastern Sea for days now while making sure that they did not cross the so-called Danger Zone. By help of Cash; whose Nen ability had something to do with electromagnetic force, he was able to determine the rough area of the mobile Danger Zone. He informed the Hunters Association that the electromagnetic wavelength in the air was bent and distorted in a certain spherical area on the Eastern Sea, at the same time creating an optical illusion by bending the wavelength of the particles in the air. It stretched up to several kilometres above the sea level.

"Shit. The electromagnetic barrier was so bloody strong. Even I can't break it with my Nen." Cash had cursed the moment he tried to penetrate the electromagnetic barrier of the Danger Zone, but his Nen had been brutally repelled like it was a mere fly.

Netero's mind then wandered to his phone talk with Gon. When Netero had told Gon the situations, the teenager had relayed the message to his companions—which included Fino and Shalnark; who by happenstance were there. Shalnark had requested Gon to tell Netero to give that one week interval, for reasons that considering his Danchou's capabilities, that would be the estimated time taken by Kuroro to fully recover when he was wounded—but even Shalnark did not know the real extent of Kuroro Lucifer's abilities. It was only a rough estimation on his part.

Netero had then requested Shalnark—indirectly through Gon—to join the so-called rescue team, but he had politely declined. While the young man did not give any reasons for turning down the offer, Netero knew that it had something to do with the Spider's pride and policy.

Oh yes, Chairman Netero of the Hunters Association knew that Shalnark was there when he spoke with Gon and he was well aware that Shalnark was a Hunter who belonged to the Genei Ryodan. As for why he had never done anything about it, the reason remained a mystery—as how things were always with Netero.

"Chairman, how long more do we have to wait?" Cash asked for the umpteenth time of the day

"In time, Cash. In time. For now, let's just wait and see." Netero answered sagaciously.

* * *

She was dozing off. The boredom was getting into her, and her over-anxiety was draining what energy she had left. It had been a freaking week, and they were stuck like a lab rat in that hell hole. Her mind kept wandering to Meta—was Anansi really taking care of him properly? Was he eating well? Just as Kurapika decided that she might as well take a short nap, the metal door slid open and someone stepped into the room. Judging from the footsteps, she knew that it was Heen.

"What do you want this time?" She asked with bored, almost sleepy tone.

"I'm going to do something which I don't usually do here." Came Heen's cheerful answer, but the content was too disturbing to go unnoticed by even a dozing-off Kurapika.

She looked up and glared at the man in white. He still had that silly grin etched on his face, and Kurapika suspected that she was beginning to associate such foolish grin with that man. Scowling at him; one that usually sent Leorio cowering in the corner of a room, Kurapika observed every single movement made by the man.

"How are you feeling today?"

"Quit the chit-chat and go straight to the point." She said harshly.

"Severe as always. Why are you so different from Mr. Lucifer?"

"Because I am not him. And quit calling him Mr. Lucifer. It gives me goose-bumps." As if to emphasise her point, she shuddered silently.

"Hm? Why not? But oh well, fine by me." Heen shrugged and he approached the bed. He sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the door. "You know, one of the Reprogrammers is going to fetch the two of you today."

At this, Kurapika visibly stiffened.

"And? You are here to see us getting our memories erased?"

"Of course not." Heen laughed and dismissed Kurapika's accusation by waving his hand in front of his face. "But I've been thinking…"

Heen suddenly leaned towards her and scrutinised her facial feature from close-up. Kurapika squirmed uncomfortably under his intense stare and inched away from him as far as the cuffs around her ankles and wrists allowed her. Heen frowned slightly. Her skin was almost as pale as paraffin, showing that she had not been taking care of herself properly—that, or she was under too much stress lately. It was likely to be the latter, considering her personality. Her eyes were almost glassy aquamarine, and they were shaped somewhat in a feline manner; like cat's eyes. The colour of her hair was gold, but he had the feeling that it used to be lighter in colour before. Overall, Kurapika was a beauty in her own right…

"What do you think you are doing?" She snapped at him in annoyance.

…and with a sharp tongue for sure.

"Well, I'm just thinking that I should make some nice memory with you before your memories get erased."

"What?"

Before Kurapika could really process the implication of the man with dark olive skin, Heen had taken hold of her chin and pressed his lips against hers tightly. Her brains turned numb momentarily, Kurapika could only stare dumbly at nothing in particular. When logic started coming back at her, the first thing she did was to bite Heen's lips that were connected to hers.

With a yelp, Heen withdrew. There was blood oozing from the tiny cut on his lower lip. Kurapika glared at him and if looks could kill, Heen would have been mutilated all over into unrecognisable bits. Seeing Kurapika's glare, Heen smiled broadly.

"Like I have said, I'm going to make a nice memory with you."

"Shut up, you lecher!"

Kurapika swung one hand in attempt to slap him but before the mighty slap was made, Heen caught her flying wrist and twisted her hand to her back. With a gasp of pain, Kurapika found herself being pinned down on her bed. She squirmed violently to rid herself from his grip, but it did nothing.

"No need to strain yourself to do something futile, Kurapika. With only this much power you have, you can't hope to shake me off." Heen whispered to her ears seductively.

Kurapika shrunk her head between her shoulders, trying to get away from his accursed breath that was caressing her skin in the most unsettling manner. Again she tried to wrench her wrists from his grip, but it felt like she was trapped at the bottom of the ocean. His grip around her wrists never loosened. Heen leaned towards her neck and brushed his lips against the sensitive skin behind her ears. Kurapika involuntarily shuddered upon contact.

"Come on, Kurapika. Don't resist." He whispered without breaking the contact.

Then, Kurapika suddenly felt a rush of electricity invading her body. She felt like she was being electrocuted using low voltage of electricity, but the impact was tenfold more numbing than anything else. It was as if the nerves in her muscles were freezing. She squirmed relentlessly, still trying to break away from the man even when she was in so much pain. All the while, Heen took his time tasting her skin from her neck going down to the shoulder. She cringed at the touch, unwilling to be touched by any other man except for one person.

_Only him…_She whispered unconsciously to herself as her eyes turned bright scarlet.

A hand grabbed her chin and twisted her head. She found Heen looking at her with a surprised look. He was clearly scrutinising Kurapika's Scarlet Eyes.

"Who would have thought…?" He whispered in disbelief, but then a twisted smile suddenly curled up his lips. "I see…"

Suddenly, her mouth was sealed by another mouth. It was repulsive; the kiss felt disgusting. It was so different. So revoltingly different… Thoughts started to go awry in her head; the words jumbled up in her thoughts. Suddenly, images flooded her brains—memories that did not belong to her.

* * *

"Man, this is already the nth time that Heen visits that girl. He has never shown any interests towards the captives before. What's so special with this one?" One of the guards asked curiously.

"Who knows? Maybe he likes her look or sumthin'? Not like I care, but there are other countless prettier girl than 'tis one. Just his taste, I guess?" The older one said with a shrug.

He fished out a packet of cigarette from his pocket and stuffed one cigarette to his mouth. When he started taking out his lighter and attempted on lighting the cigarette, the younger guard looked at him with abashedly.

"Hey, we aren't supposed to smoke while on duty, right?"

"Shut yer trap, brat. This job is so boring I can just die any time out of it." The older man said with a spat as he pocketed both his cigarette pack and the lighter. He took out the cigarette and blew a thin smoke out of his mouth. "Man, this is so damn fuckin' boring…"

"Really? Should I relieve you from your boredom then?"

Another refined voice; velvety and completely unfamiliar to their ears, spoke from out of nowhere. Alerted, both guards readied their weapons and they were greeted by a sight of a man walking down the corridor with very much calm gait, as if he was just taking a stroll. The man was dressed in black, with jet black hair and his skin was of a stark contrast pale shade against his dark outfit.

"Who're ya? Stop right there or I'll blow a hole thru' yer pretty face!" The guard said harshly while releasing the safety lock of his gun.

For one fleeting moment, the senior guard thought he saw a sinister smirk gracing the man's face. The next moment, he had disappeared from his view.

"Whut?"

CRACK!

The sickening sound of a bone being broken made the older guard turned in alarm. He was just in time to see his comrade crumpling to the floor, his neck twisted to a strange angle that was so out of shape. Standing behind his junior's lifeless body was the same man as before. He had a crooked smile plastered on his handsome face; one which sent shiver down the guard's spine. His gun trembled in his hold, and he instinctively took one step back.

"W, w, what the blazes are ya?"

Before he could even pull the trigger of his gun, the man had disappeared again. This time, he felt cold sensation breathing down his neck. Cold sweat trickled from his temple as he stood rooted to the ground like a thunder-stricken rabbit.

_Holy cow…_ He thought as he felt a pair of hand rested on either side of his head. _I'm a goner._

CRACK!

* * *

Tears of humiliation were streaking her flushed cheeks. She was still struggling, but it was to no avail.

"How long do you think I have been enduring this living hell, Kurapika?" Heen breathed out next to her ears. "How long?"

Kurapika could not answer. She was too busy trying to cope with the invasion of foreign memories that were forcefully ingrained into her body, and on top of everything was the disgrace of being touched by this shameless man. It was driving her insane.

"Fifteen years, Kurapika. Fifteen years since I was 13 years-old, and in that span of time, I have trained my bodies so severely in order to emerge alive every time I was sent on missions. You can't begin to imagine what kind of opponents I had to face in those missions. Some of them are the worst kind of people. You know the captain, the one who oversaw the capture of the cruise you boarded? He was captured by me five years ago and he was the one who cut off this arm of mine, forcing me to undergo that painful cyborg installation surgery. You have no hope in defeating me in terms of raw strength."

Heen licked her nape, and she gave a strangled hic. She had never felt so humiliated, so violated.

"There were other Nen-users much stronger than you are, Kurapika. Much stronger, yet they don't have what is required to ensure the success of my plan."

At these words, the current of electricity and the flood of memories that were inundating her suddenly stopped. Kurapika let out a chocked breath, as if she had been holding her breath for God-knew-how-long. She panted and gasped, cold sweats drenching her forehead, temples, and back. Her whole body was trembling from the shock yet she felt numb.

"Y—your plan?" She managed to stutter.

A cold smile gleamed across Heen's unnaturally sinister face, but there was a dark, sad shadow that seemed to cloud his bright hazel eyes. His attention shifted to the metal door for a millisecond, before he suddenly seized Kurapika's chin with his broad hand and forced his kiss upon her again.

Kurapika gave a yelp but she could not get him off her body. He persistently pressed his body against her, as if he wanted to eat her whole being up. His grip on her chin was so strong, as if he was driven by a strong resolute, but somehow she had this instinct that it was not purely lust—for one, he had done absolutely nothing else aside for kissing her here and there.

Nobody seemed to notice the metal door sliding open and someone stepping into the cell—Kurapika was preoccupied in getting Heen off her while Heen seemed to be wholly focused in maintaining the kiss—until a muffled bang rang in the small cell and Heen was thrown off Kurapika's body. Heen's body collided brutally with the metal wall, producing a loud sickening dull sound. When he dropped to the bed that was attached to the wall, the slick metal wall was stained crimson. Belatedly, Kurapika realised that she had also been covered in the same thick crimson liquid since she heard the muffled bang. When she looked at Heen's body in utter shock, she noticed that a good portion of his abdomen was grotesquely missing.

She also absolutely missed the shots that hit the chains of cuffs, effectively releasing her from her metallic bond.

A succession of muffled bang rang again, this time it sounded so cruel and merciless. In no time, Heen's body was virtually turned into a beehive, with almost all of his limbs half severed from his torso and half of his chest—the right pectoral—was blown off. The whole scene was so overwhelmingly hideous that she had the urge to throw all contents of her stomach.

Turning her head towards the direction where the shots were coming from, she saw Kuroro Lucifer advancing towards them steadily with the gun in his hand trained to Heen and it was spewing white-hot bullets relentlessly. The gun was no ordinary gun. It was a custom-made gun that was engineered in such way that from close range, the impact it produced was perhaps equivalent to that of a shotgun. In short, it was like a mini shotgun.

There was a mad look in those usually cold and calculative obsidian eyes. It was as if they were blazing with black flames of Hell, steeped in bloodlust and thirst for murder. Never mind the Nen repression system that Bensalem had, it was not enough to suppress Kuroro's murderous aura from overflowing and contaminating the air.

Kurapika could not remember the last time she saw that look on his face but regardless, she was absolutely stricken with pure terror when she witnessed that wild, uncontained desire to crush a life into nothingness. Her body felt heavy with the pressure of his aura alone, and she could barely look into those dark eyes. They were…simply murderous.

And nothing else.

"S—stop…" She managed to mutter.

Kuroro continued practicing his marksmanship at Heen—whose body was already barely recognizable but he knew that the filthy man was still alive. So he kept shooting. If anything, he purposely avoided killing him in an instant. In his grossly twisted perspective, the man did not deserve an easy and quick death.

"Kuroro, stop!"

Unable to take the macabre bloodshed anymore, Kurapika threw herself at him. Knowing by experience that normally people so possessed with desire to kill would easily throw whoever clung to their weapon-wielding arm aside—even their comrades—in cold disregard, Kurapika lunged herself to his chest and grabbed the lapel of his shirt. Very desperately then, she tried to shake some sense into him.

"KURORO LUCIFER! STOP!" She screamed at him despairingly.

Although it was very excruciating to look into those abysmal eyes that were brimming with nothing but pure lust for murder, Kurapika still held her ground. Her muscles were screaming in pain from the earlier torture by Heen's electromagnetic Nen power, but she paid it no heed.

Kuroro did stop firing his gun. Though his arm that was holding the gun was still held taut and ready for another round, he lowered his hateful gaze from Heen—who was a bloody mass full of holes—down to Kurapika. The intensity had not died down when his eyes met with Kurapika's aquamarine eyes, but the hatred had been replaced by something else. Nevertheless, although not showered by that blazing hatred that seemed to be spawned straight from the belly of Hell, something in those eyes froze Kurapika inside and out.

She could not move at all. Her whole being; even her inner organs, seemed to have stopped functioning. She could not twitch or bat an eyelash, not even as Kuroro's free hand rose up and grabbed a fistful of her golden hair. A short gasp was all she was capable of when he yanked back her head. She could do absolutely nothing when Kuroro pressed his lips against hers.

Even after years that had passed since the last time they shared a kiss, it still felt painfully familiar—and right. With that one arm, Kuroro managed to lock her in an embrace. Suddenly, just as she had been instantaneously frozen by his gaze, now she felt very warm; like she was melting. Her grip on his shirt slackened and she rested her palms on his chest. She could not drive him away from him like she tried to do with Heen. As if with a sudden new resolute, she clutched his shirt like it was her lifeline, and she returned the kiss with equal passion, with eyes closed.

At that moment, one truth as plain as day was revealed: that they needed—craved—for each other badly.

During the moment when they were interlocked together, when time seemed to have stopped for eternity, only one thought remained in Kuroro's head:

_You are mine. I won't let any other men touch you. You are mine and mine only._

The kiss did not last long. Just as sudden as he had kissed her, he broke away from the kiss. Kurapika let out an involuntary gasp, and when she fluttered open her eyes she was confronted by that steely pair of eyes. They sucked her in, trapping her in their abysmal light. She could not utter a single word. Kuroro's eyes dropped to her neck, where his keen eyes did not miss a bluish spot sitting at the base of her neck. His eyes narrowed dangerously.

Pushing her aside not too roughly yet somewhat coldly, Kuroro advanced towards the dying Heen. While he did so, he ejected the empty magazine of the gun and refilled it with a fresh one. The metal casing of the empty magazine gave a nerve-wracking clang as it dropped and rebounded several times against the metal floor before finally coming to a stop. He had basically stolen all those ammunition from the dead guards. Just as he stood before the pitiful figure of a once handsome man, he trained the mouth of the gun to his head.

"Quite a passionate reunion you have there, heh…" Heen managed to gurgle out those words along with blood, but there was no malice in his words. If anything, it sounded strangely sincere.

Kuroro released the safety lock. Kurapika took one hasty step forward.

"Wait, don't—"

"Give me a reason not to finish off this man." Kuroro said with low voice, and it sounded like the toll of funeral bell.

The severity of his voice almost made Kurapika halted in her track, but she pushed forwards nonetheless. She touched his arm gingerly, afraid that one mere touch could make him pull the trigger.

"He told me how to get out of here."

Kuroro's cold eyes turned to glance at her from the corner of his eyes, but his gun was steadfastly aimed at Heen's head. His eyes questioned her assertion.

"I only saw you being sexually harassed by him."

There was a hard edge in his voice, and Kurapika had to swallow hard before she continued with her reasoning.

"Yes he did that and I won't forgive him for that." She said while casting a hard glare at the bloodied up man, but she could not help but to pity him in his current state. He would never survive that. "But he did transfer his knowledge of this place into me."

"…the electrons?"

Kurapika nodded solemnly.

"Hmph." Kuroro sniffed indifferently. "All the more reason to dispose of him. Besides, in the first place we don't need him to get out of this place."

While Kuroro did not elaborate further the meaning of his words, Kurapika herself was too busy getting all worked up by Kuroro's ruthlessness that she forgot to question how he had escaped his cell without raising the alarm. Kuroro felt the cruel coldness of the Solomon Ring in his finger. Yes, he had used the Solomon Ring to get out of his cell quietly. The demons were of course unaffected by the electromagnetic force. Had he wished it, with a single word from him the demons could turn the whole place upside down in no time. However, Kuroro Lucifer was a prudent man and he knew well enough not to mess with entities possessing dangerously precarious power with questionable loyalty. He had no desire to use the Solomon Ring except when in dire need. If he could help it, he would escape from the place using his own efforts.

Veins popped on Kurapika's temple. Wordlessly, she stepped forward and stood in front of Heen; effectively shielding him from Kuroro's gun. There was a fire of anger in her oceanic blue eyes, and they were on the verge of turning scarlet.

"You're such a jerk!" She spat the words.

The two of them then suddenly engaged in a glaring competition.

"Pfft. One moment you are all lovey-dovey…then the next moment…you look like…you want to rip each other's heads off… You two…are really…impossible…" Heen said in a wheezing voice. Each time he spoke, he vomited blood. "Too much…for me to…handle…Both…of you…"

Kurapika turned her head to him, but seeing his battered body that was almost beyond recognition, Kurapika felt compelled to turn her head away. It was too painful and gruesome to see. The only thing that was purely intact was only his head. His left leg had been completely destroyed; the wires dangling from the stump of his leg that was still connected to his torso and sparks could be seen from the severed end of those fine cords, while half of his right thigh was already blown off with the raw flesh gruesomely exposed. His right upper torso had been destroyed along with the entire right cyborg arm; the synthetic cable-tendons giving off sparks of dying electricity. It seemed that his left human arm had been rendered paralyzed due to the shock and the overwhelming pain. The left half of his abdomen was gone as well, and so were the entrails within it. It was a miracle that he was still alive—after all, like he had told Kurapika, he had survived 15 years of living hell in that Bensalem. Kuroro had purposefully avoided shooting his heart and his brain.

Heen drew one long haggard breath, and he looked as if he was about to crumble when he exhaled. He looked at Kuroro square in the eyes.

"Kill me…" He whispered, almost sickeningly with passion.

"But—" Kurapika started.

"It's okay…I…have always…wanted…to die…anyway…But not…before…I've made sure…of…"

The rest of the words became unintelligible words, and none of them could catch what he was saying because his voice was mixed with the gruesome sound of blood gurgling in his throat.

Kurapika fully turned to face Heen. He had confessed that he had started living that hellish life since he was 13 years old. That was the same age as her when her clan was massacred by the Genei Ryodan. Their tragic life had started on the same age. They were, in one way or another, a kindred spirit. Even more when he had been living this damnable life for one purpose only, just like what she had done. That, however, was already a past life for her.

"Kurapika…" He wheezed. "Don't…squander…the memories…that I…have… bequeathed…to you."

Kurapika bit her lower lips. She dared not promise anything, lest she could not keep her own words—like how she had not kept her promise to the dying Ishtar to look after Kuroro. Heen closed his eyes briefly and exhaled a pained, jagged breath. When he opened his eyes, he was looking at Kuroro who was standing behind Kurapika. He stood majestically with glacial atmosphere about him, clad in all black with hair as black as a raven's feather and eyes that were as black as a coal—like a messenger of Death.

"It's…painful…" He managed to breathe out.

"…I know." Kuroro said unsympathetically. He stepped forward and readied his gun.

"Kuro—"

"The longer you keep him alive, the more he will suffer. Are you going to make him endure all those?" Kuroro asked with dispassionate face.

He turned to look at Kurapika straight in the eyes. There was a mocking light in those obsidian eyes. When Kurapika did not answer him, he continued with the same emotionless voice:

"Aren't you cruel?"

That was all she needed to excuse herself from that blood-drenched room. Clenching her fists into tight ball and fighting back the bile rising in her throat, she stormed out of the room. She was in no condition to engage in a debate with that man; she knew she would eventually lose. When she stepped out of the room, she was mortified to find the guards with their head bent in a very grotesquely strange angle. She clasped her mouth in repulsion, but said nothing of it. Nonetheless, she squatted down and closed their fear-stricken eyes with respect that was reserved for the dead. That was the least she could do.

Once she was well outside of the room, Kuroro turned to Heen and approached him.

"Two shots on the heart, two shots on the brain. Is that it?" Kuroro confirmed as he stopped a few paces shy from the bedside. When Heen had been fixing his electrons, he had told him how cyborg like him could never die unless the brains and the heart were destroyed simultaneously.

Heen chuckled, but it was more like he was gurgling on his own blood. "Just in case…"

"Any last words?" Kuroro trained his gun to Heen's heart first.

"…Yeah…. Tell her…I'm sorry…and…" He paused, and added with so much sincerity and passion in his wheezy words: "Don't…lose her…Lucifer."

Kuroro raised a quizzical eyebrow. Heen sniffed in dry amusement. When he was harassing Kurapika earlier, the electrons flowing from Kurapika's body were telling him that she was screaming in her head for that man whose eyes were virtually bottomless. Despite what they told him about their fragile relationship, he did not believe a word of it. Those electrons never lied to him, and they were telling him that those two's bonds ran deeper than one could imagine. Most amusingly, the electrons had told him that she had a sort of conviction that only Kuroro Lucifer was allowed to touch her in that way.

_You are a lucky man, Lucifer. I pray that you won't end up like me…_Heen sincerely thought.

He had not meant to really harass Kurapika. He just wanted to test Kuroro, since he knew that the man was coming for her. It seemed that he had gone a tad too far. Not that he regretted it, though. It was all fine. It was all according to his plan. He could rest in peace after entrusting everything in those two's hands. However…

_The only thing I'll regret…slightly…is that I can never see her again for the last time…_ Heen thought with despondent resignation.

Seeing that Heen's eyelids were already dropping, Kuroro knew that it was about time.

"That goes without saying," Kuroro paused, before adding, "Heen."

The said man smiled thinly. That was the first time Mr. Lucifer ever called him by his given name. With a content look on his handsome yet bloodied face, Heen closed his eyes.

"Good night." Kuroro said evenly, before pulling the trigger without hesitation.

A succession of silenced shots seemed to echo loudly in Kurapika's ears, and every time that hideous sound reached her, her shoulders jerked violently. Afterwards, everything seemed so deathly quiet. When Kuroro stepped out of the room, he stood next to Kurapika.

"This," he murmured solemnly, "is mercy, Kurapika."

* * *

"So what's the situation?" Leorio asked Killua nervously.

"Nothing from the Hunters Association, and nothing from Shalnark so far." Killua answered coolly.

Netero had told them the fact about the electromagnetic barrier around Bensalem, and they had relayed the information to Shalnark. They did not know whether the Genei Ryodan would make a move to rescue their Danchou or not, but they just gambled that they would do something. After all, there was nothing to lose in that aspect.

For the time being, waiting for updates from Netero was all they could do. They had been patrolling the coastal area, in case the elusive place showed up near the shores. The general idea was to try to infiltrate the place once it was somehow visible to rescue Kurapika—and Kuroro along the way (if he needed their help, which was highly unlikely).

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ Another gross chapter…For those who think Heen is a cool character, forgive me for doing this to him X Heen is actually a tragic character, although I actually like him quite a lot. He's a fun character to write about, somewhat like Lucian perhaps? I don't know if Kuroro is out of character here, for acting so irrational when he so-called tortured Heen. It isn't like him to torture people before killing them (unlike Lucian) but well… Anything to say about that matter? I need to know for future reference for the coming chapters._

_**Next: **__With the unexpected turn of events, how would things go? What kind of memories had Heen transferred to Kurapika and how would she handle it when she was so shaken with Heen's tragic death by Kuroro's hands? All parties from the outside world seemed ready to storm the place, and they were only waiting for something to happen from within the elusive Bensalem. _


	14. Chapter 12: Mutuality

_**Disclaimer: **__Still not mine._

_**Story so far:**__ Following Heen's death and making use of the knowledge of that place that Heen had bequeathed to Kurapika, the duo tried to find their way out of the wretched place as quietly as possible. Who would have thought that along the way they would gain an ally?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 12**

_**MUTUALITY**_

_**

* * *

**_

They moved with such a speed that nobody could hope to see them running along the corridor—except for Nen-users, of course. Fortunately, there were no Nen-users around. They were hardly around. Based on Heen's memories, those Nen-users usually confined themselves in their own private quarter, only going out when they had missions. In general, the corridors of Bensalem were closed to deserted places. The only living beings around would be the guards, and there were very few of them around since technology was replacing their efficiency.

The smaller shadow was dashing in the front, guiding the bigger shadow behind it. Without hesitation, as if knowing the place by heart, it went straight to one particular place: the Heart of Bensalem.

Once they reached the front gate of the Heart, Kurapika—the owner of the smaller shadow—skidded smoothly into a halt. Kuroro followed close to her, careful not to drop the huge luggage that he was carrying on his shoulder. They quickly slipped into the shadowy recess of the narrow corridor to avoid the prying eyes of the ubiquitous surveillance cameras scattered at all corners of the place as best as they could. Kuroro uncaringly dropped the limp fat body of a man in uniform to the cold metal floor.

"This is the place?" He asked Kurapika, who was looking around the place with a mild frown on her face.

"This is only the first gate." She said curtly—still somewhat upset by Heen's brutal death.

Sifting through the memories she received from Heen, she started looking for the control panel along the wall that was coated in slick black metal. After finding it, she quickly approached it and studied the interface. There was practically not a single button there, except for a tracing panel for palm and a small hole for retina scan. She motioned at Kuroro to come over, and Kuroro obediently dragged the unconscious body towards Kurapika and the control panel.

Earlier, after Kurapika had calmed down, she told Kuroro that they were due to Reprogramming chamber that day. A Reprogrammer was going to fetch him first, and then her. Usually a Reprogrammer was accompanied by minimum two guards for one Nen-user, so for their case there would be four guards since they planned to reprogram the two of them simultaneously. It would be essential for them to catch the Reprogrammer since they would need someone of classified personnel—specifically the palm print and the retina scan—in order to go through the security system into the Heart of Bensalem. These were all information she received prior to Heen's 'assisted death'

A plan was subsequently formulated. Kuroro would sat on his bed, pretending to be all calm and collected. When the Reprogrammer stepped in, Kurapika—who had been stationed next to the door—would knock the poor man out cold by kicking his solar plexus. When the Reprogrammer was down onto the cold floor, only then Kuroro would take out his stolen gun and shot down the guards. It was a ridiculously straightforward plan, and it succeeded with expectedly flying colours.

Kuroro lifted the Reprogrammer's fat body with one hand and used his free hand to place his bulbous hand on the palm scan panel, while Kurapika handled the retina scan. There was a beeping sound coming from the speaker and a mechanical voice spoke.

**[ID confirmed: Gaston Lambart. Access granted.]**

The metal gate budged, and with a slow swish the heavy black door of several inches thickness raised up to reveal a suspended bridge that extended for a few metres before branching into three other paths. Beneath the bridge was a depression forming a gaping gargantuan bowl that was filled with wires, cords, and cables of various size, colour, and material. Quickly the two of them—dragging the still out cold Reprogrammer along—slipped into the first outer chamber of the Heart. The moment they were inside, the gate automatically closed behind them.

Kurapika looked around the chamber with high ceiling. The chamber seemed to be of a spherical shape—or to be precise, like the shape of a massive egg—with another structure in the middle of it that looked like a cluster of huge jet black pods. The egg-shaped chamber itself seemed to be sitting at the base of the fortress, since Kurapika did not remember seeing this spherical shape anywhere above the sea level when she first saw the floating edifice, while she estimated the chamber to be several hundred metres in diameter.

"This is the Heart of Bensalem, in the sense that the source for the electromagnetic barrier is located here—probably inside those pods. According to his memories, if we can remove one particular source here, the barrier will falter to the extent that we should be able to access our Nen but not entirely."

"That will be good enough." Kuroro said softly as he looked around the structure with something akin to admiration on his stoic face.

White puffs of their breaths escaped from their mouths and noses as they breathed and spoke. It was very, very cold in the chamber—it was like inside a refrigerator. Rubbing her upper arms to rub in some warmth into her limbs, Kurapika began briskly walking along the bridge, yet her steps were not as confident as before. The cause was simply because she had no further information about the chamber since Heen's memories only went as far as the first gate. Albeit so, there was still a piece of information to guide her: the roman number II and a word BIA.

Kurapika observed the first pod in front of her. It stood mightily that reached halfway to the ceiling. On the door, several metres above the floor, there was something engraved:

**I**

**ARISTA**

She then quickly understood what she had to look for. The only thing to decide now was whether to turn left or right. Kurapika turned to Kuroro and gestured at him to wait there. He simply nodded in approval though he was in the dark vis-à-vis what she was doing. Kurapika then hurriedly inspected the pod next to ARISTA pod. The number engraved was X – which meant there were 10 pods in total. She was supposed to look for the second pod, which then would be on the right of the first pod. Hastily she ran in the reverse direction and when she stopped and looked up, she found what she was looking for. On the door was carved:

**II**

**BIA**

With renewed vigour, Kurapika turned to Kuroro and motioned at him to come over. He walked towards her while hauling Gaston Lambart's huge body over his shoulder like it weighted nothing. Kurapika stood next to a control panel that was identical to the one on the first gate. Kuroro lowered the body.

"Must it be this particular pod?" He asked in a quiet murmur.

Kurapika did not answer, and he did not mind the lack of response. They manoeuvred the body like how they did in the first gate. The mechanical voice spoke again:

**[ID confirmed: Gaston Lambart. Access into BIA, 2****nd**** chamber, granted.]**

The metallic door swished open and it revealed a narrow corridor. Before they could take a step forward, there was suddenly a beeping sound and the corridor was suddenly bathed in dangerously red light. The next thing they knew, they were looking at a corridor decorated with criss-crossing translucent filaments that were none other than lasers.

**[Please enter the Security Deactivation Code.]**The mechanical voice announced.

"No way…" Kurapika groaned in distress as she slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand.

"Seems like this place really is the fulcrum of this floating fortress, considering this extent of security installed. They have anticipated the probability of someone copying the palm and retina imprint of one of the classified personnel to breach the first gate. Impressive."

"I don't think this is the time to be impressed." Kurapika said deadpan.

"Well then…" Kuroro rummaged through the pocket of his pants and pulled out something. "Let's try this out."

Kurapika turned to him and had her eyes bulging out when she saw what he was holding. It was the bracelet that Heen had been wearing; the one that nullified the Nen repression electromagnetic field around him so that the wearer could still utilise their Nen within the compound of Bensalem.

"You stole from the dead?" She hissed at him.

"No. I'm just borrowing it. Besides, I don't he'll mind." Kuroro said lightly—in which he earned a deathly glare from Kurapika as the reward—as he wore the bracelet around his wrist.

The moment the bracelet was secured around his wrist with a soft click, the red sphere glowed subtly and suddenly Kuroro found himself feeling a familiar warmth coursing within his being—his Nen. Satisfied that he could get in touch with his Nen again after one full week, he let out a small smirk. He tried summoning his Skill Hunter book, and the book appeared in his hand without the slightest difficulties. Even Kurapika; mortified as she was by Kuroro's disrespect towards the dead, could not help but to be impressed—by the device, that is.

"Good. Let's see now…" Kuroro murmured as he flipped through the book. He stopped flipping the pages when he spotted the skill that he wanted to use to tackle the circumstance. "This will do. Hold this for a while."

Kurapika grabbed the scruff of the still-out-cold man's collar.

"Give me your other hand."

She obeyed and held his hand. It was amazingly cold, as if it was carved directly from block of ice. Kurapika could not help but to flinch at the touch. It was unknown whether Kuroro noticed this small gesture or not, but even if he did, he chose to ignore it. Utilising his Transportation skill, it was a child's play for him to reach the other end of the corridor without having to deal with those lasers.

"Good thing I borrowed this, no?" He smirked triumphantly at Kurapika.

The Kuruta only groused incoherently under her breath but said nothing to debate with the man. The control panel was right before them, and they used Gaston Lambart to gain access again.

**[ID confirmed: Gaston Lambart. Authorisation of entry into BIA main pod, 2****nd**** chamber. This is a highly delicate area. Please proceed with care.]**

This time, even more advanced than before, the gate opened vertically and horizontally—it was a double layer gate system with each door made of enforced metal. Freezing wind gushed out of the inner chamber, accompanied with white smoke. The two of them instinctively covered their face from the invading screen of whiteness. When the fog that was heavy with somewhat sterile scent of chemicals had died down, both of them lowered their hands and were dumbstruck at the scene before them.

Inside was a smaller chamber than previously, yet the wall was strewn with cables and wires, pipes and cords, screens and panels. They were all assembling towards one place—the top of a huge tank that contained a kind of blue chemical and a floating object inside it.

Kuroro narrowed his eyes with something akin to mild disgust flashing across those obsidian eyes.

"You don't say that _this_ is the source of the electromagnetic barrier?" He asked her sceptically, though he knew the answer without even asking.

The figure floating in the tank filled with eerily glowing liquid was that of a little girl. Her eyes were half-closed, so it was hard to decided whether she was conscious or not—whether she was simply sleeping or in a coma. Despite the blue liquid, it was transparent enough to allow them to see her olive skin, albeit in extremely pale complexion due to non-exposure to sunlight for years. Her snow-white hair was wavy; dancing lazily like a water snake, forming an undulating fan around her small head. For such a little girl, her hair was terribly long. Her body floated limply in the liquid, and it was clad in a tight-fitting grey suit with small rings to accommodate the cables and cords attached to her body.

"This is Bia." Kurapika murmured with a pained look on her face. Heen's memories were affecting her. "She's—"

"Heen's little sister."

Both Kurapika and Kuroro spun on their heels upon hearing a new, unfamiliar voice coming from behind them. Standing beyond the corridor of lasers was an elderly woman with short stature dressed in Bensalem uniform. Her wrinkled skin was sagging from her bones and she looked like she was in her sixties, but there was something about her that showed her sturdiness. There was something akin to hope in that old face as she stared at them with a sad smile, though her face was ashen pale with anxiety.

"Kurapika and Lucifer?" The old woman asked with kindly face.

Kurapika visibly tensed up, but Kuroro retained his cool expression.

"I assume you are sent here by Heen?" The old woman continued.

Suffocating silence filled the entire place. The two parties stared at each other for what seemed like forever, until the old woman broke it with her soft, cracking voice.

"Her hair is supposed to be this lovely shade of mahogany, like her brother's, but due to the shock she experienced mentally and physically, they turned white overnight. It was such an appalling sight." She said with a tired sigh.

"Who are you?" Kurapika asked cautiously and tersely. Was she there to capture them? Had they been discovered?

"The name is Ellie." She said calmly as she raised a kind of cleaning device that she had been holding since beginning. "And you can say that I'm the cleaning lady here. Despite being high-tech and all, this place still needs some kind of human touch."

The woman; Ellie, proceeded to input the Security Deactivation Code and entered the pod leisurely. Kuroro and Kurapika exchanged wary looks. How could a cleaning lady be in a possession of something as important as a deactivation code? As if she could read their thoughts, Ellie simply laughed softly at the 'youngsters'.

"I'm just a wizened old woman. The higher-ups think that a fragile old hag like me—a mindless cleaning lady—won't be able to do a thing to damage this place. They don't expect me to betray them by circulating the code either, since there is nobody foolish enough to turn against the organization once they are installed with the Collar. I don't have that vile thing in me, though." The old lady chattered as she approached them. "Ha! Those fool think I'm such a meek old thing. They are so gravely mistaken and they're going to pay dearly for that. Oh, and by the by, there is no CCTV in this chamber since even they want to keep whatever is happening here confidential so nobody can learn anything from the recordings of the surveillance camera."

"So I assume that you are here to assist us?" Kuroro asked politely after Ellie had finished rattling with vengeance.

"A polite gentleman! How refreshing. Most of the employees here are such pigs and swine with no manners. The only one with decent manner around here is only Heen…" Her voice trailed away at the mention of that name.

She then looked up into their eyes. Though she was old, there was something about her that resembled Hatsubaba of Ryuusei-gai. Perhaps it was her strong spirit despite her old age; the sturdiness that rivalled stretched and seasoned leathers.

"If you promise me that you'll help those poor souls, I'll be glad to assist you anyhow I can." The old woman said while nodding her head, satisfied with the condition that she had put.

Kurapika frowned at her, not knowing whether to believe her or not. Kuroro, on the other hand, sported a neutral look.

"Why? Aren't you an employee here?" Kurapika asked suspiciously.

"To be precise, I'm a slave here who is depraved of her dusty memories of her past. Even so, that doesn't mean my loyalty lies with those pigs. Well then…" Ellie rubbed her wrinkled hands excitedly. "For starter, I have been working here for 42 years."

"Forty—" Kurapika's eyes widened in disbelief.

"That's more than half of my life. I was enslaved here when I was in the prime of my life" Ellie nodded. "I have been living here for so long, there are things about this place that I'm bound to know. I will tell you all that I know, if you promise me that you'll save these pitiful children."

Her tone was resolute and decisive, and both of them knew that she was not going to change her mind. The duo looked at each other again.

"At the very least, I'm going to save Bia." Kurapika declared.

Kuroro covered his mouth with his hand while supporting the elbow with his other hand. As he began thinking, he turned to look at the sinister tank that held the little girl captive.

"Fair enough, although we more or less have our hands full. However, we can't afford to save all ten of them."

"Then at least put them out of their misery." Ellie insisted.

"But how—" Kurapika started, but was cut off by Kuroro.

"Deal."

Kurapika glared at Kuroro, but before she could launch a session of protest at the older man, Ellie beamed at them with a face so satisfied that Kurapika's words died off at the tip of her tongue. Ellie then stood before Bia's tank. She looked at it like a mother looking at her sick child. She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping as she did so.

"The poor boy and his sister… I remembered the first day when they were brought here by the slave traders. He was only 13 and she was only 10, but they were already Nen-users at such tender ages."

Kuroro raised an eyebrow. It was very rare for children to be able to unearth their Nen talent at that age. They had to be geniuses then.

"Both are able to manipulate electromagnetic forces, or so I heard. Bia here is much more powerful than her brother, so the higher-ups decided to turn her into this, this…" Ellie put a disgusted expression on her wrinkled face, "…'battery'."

"Battery?" Kuroro repeated the word as if tasting it. He then glanced at the little body floating inside the tank.

"Yes. The source of the electromagnetic barrier they set up around this floating fortress is actually from Nen-users that manipulate electromagnetic forces. Drain them of their Nen and utilise those powers to erect the barrier. At the same time, it drains their life away as well. Those poor souls…Young and adults…The dead bodies I have removed from these tanks since the start of my slavery here, I've lost count of them… They keep hunting those Nen-users, replacing the used up 'batteries' with the new ones… Oh, those monsters!"

"Ellie…Will she die if we cut off those cables and cords attached to her?" Kurapika asked gently, so as not to upset the poor old woman further.

"I'm not…" Ellie frowned as she tried to recall the gruesome times of her removing the wasted bodies of the 'batteries'. "Wait. No, I think she won't die. Yes, I remember that some of them still were alive when I removed them from the tanks." A regretful shadow clouded Ellie's face. "Though they died shortly after since they were already at death's door in the first place…"

The old woman then fell into a pensive state. Kurapika drew a long breath and breathed out heavily, suddenly feeling that a huge burden had been put on her shoulders. She scanned the room briefly, studying the blinking screens on the metal cylindrical wall. They were of various sizes and showing different information. She did not want to act rashly, lest they would raise the alarm and their efforts—notably Heen's—would go down the drain in vain.

Without bothering to consult Kuroro first, Kurapika approached the wall of panels and began studying them quietly with the scholastic air around her. Seeing that she was determined to figure out the system, Kuroro decided that he would leave it to her and he would do other thing that perhaps was equally important to guarantee their safe escape.

"So how do we 'put them out of their misery'?" He asked her with even tone.

He knew that by doing so, they would effectively cut down the supply of energy that was required to erect the electromagnetic barrier. That was simply why he had immediately agreed to Ellie's condition.

"Taking the cables off them would be best, but we should make do with destroying that huge chunk of pipe that's connected to the top of the tank. The one over there." Ellie said while pointing to the top of the tank. There was one thick pipe that covered the cables and wires that were going into the inside of the tank and connecting with Bia.

Kuroro stared at the pipe for a while, before he jumped towards the top of the tank almost effortlessly. Being an old-time employee in the organization and thus having more than her fair share of experience with Nen-users like Heen for almost decades, Ellie was not taken aback to see Kuroro pulling off such stunts. However, she was indeed mesmerised by how gracefully he executed that move—like she had said, most of the Nen-users there were ruffians with not an ounce of gracefulness in their roguish manners.

Kuroro then proceeded with checking the sturdiness of the pipes by tapping at the materials with his knuckle. A dull sound resonated from the impact, and it indicated that the pipe was made of a certain rubber-like material. Kuroro took out a small dagger he had 'borrowed' from the dead guards and tried nicking at the pipe just on the surface. There was no cut whatsoever. The raven-haired man stared at the pipe while covering his mouth with his hand as he pondered about the alternatives to damage the pipe. He had two other options: blasting it with the gun he had—the one with shotgun capacity—or using explosive. Conveniently, the guards that he had felled also had a kind of grenades with them and he had taken them with him just in case—which turned out to be a wise decision after all.

With a graceful leap, Kuroro landed on the metal floor without so much as making a single noise. He glanced at the massive tank for a second before turning to Ellie; who had an expectant look on her wrinkled face.

"I can suggest two viable options to do this, but the question in hand will be regarding you."

The old woman frowned in confusion.

"Don't talk in riddles, young man." Ellie scolded him mildly.

"Kurapika wishes to take this particular girl with her and I accede to that." Kuroro said while throwing a fleeting glance at the comatose girl floating in the blue chemical like a preserved object. "There are ten pods here, and considering the time taken to open each gates and inputting the Security Deactivation Code to get inside the pod, and also the assumption that the alarms will go off the moment we damage the tank, it is too risky to take the girl with us _after_ we take care of the other nine pods."

Ellie nodded as she listened intently to Kuroro's explanation and she seemed to be in deep thought.

"So now it's up to you." Kuroro finished softly.

"Not taking any risks, aren't you?" Ellie finally said with a somewhat approving tone.

"The situation requires it." Kuroro agreed with a thin smile as he looked at Kurapika—who was busy studying the system—from the corner of his eyes.

Despite the grave implication of Kuroro's words, Ellie smiled warmly at Kuroro. She then chuckled as if amused by the whole thing and shook her head.

"What a passion. Now I understand why Heen entrusted his lifetime goal to the two of you."

Kuroro raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"A word with you outside, lad? There's something I wish to tell _you_."

Without even waiting for his reply, Ellie sauntered towards the door and inputted the Security Deactivation Code once more. Kuroro started to follow after her, but a voice stopped him momentarily.

"Where are you going?"

Kurapika had stopped inspecting the control panels and was looking at him questioningly with sharp eyes. Kuroro studied her face silently before answering:

"Personal affair."

It was not a lie. If Ellie wished to talk to him in private where Kurapika was not around, it could only mean that whatever subject it was that Ellie wanted to talk with him, it had to be something personally related to him _only_. Kurapika gave a sullen look, but did not question him further. It was an unspoken rule between them; they did not meddle with each other's personal affair as much as they could.

Kurapika then turned back to her previous preoccupation of figuring out the system, but Kuroro did not immediately turn to catch up with Ellie. Instead, he stared at Kurapika's back—her shirt stained with Heen's blood that he had spilled—and then back to Bia. For a moment, he thought Bia's eyelashes fluttered ever so slightly; which he eventually dismissed as a trick of light reflected by the bright liquid and the glass tank.

"He requested you to save his sister, didn't he?" Kuroro finally muttered softly. In the quietness of the room, his voice; no matter how soft or quiet, would still reach Kurapika's ears.

Kurapika's body went rigid for a second, but she quickly regained her composure. She managed to answer him with even voice.

"Not directly. But even if he didn't, I'll still try to save her."

"Has it ever crossed your mind that what she wants is perhaps not to be saved alive, but to be freed from the pain of living?" Kuroro asked with flat tone. "Like what he desired?"

Kurapika's expression turned hard at this. Heen's and Kuroro's words echoed in her mind:

_I've always wanted to die…_

_This is mercy, Kurapika._

"Mercy? Don't give me that crap." Kurapika growled. "That's called running away! Nothing good ever comes from running away."

_And I know that by experience…_ She added inwardly.

"She'll just get in the way."

"I don't care. I'll manage."

"Stubborn."

"Shut up, Kuroro. I understand how it feels to be treated as an object—like how Bia is now." She was referring to the times when she had been captured and auctioned as a living artefact.

Kurapika looked at Bia's face that was tinted blue by the glow of the chemical within the glass tank.

_I want her to know life other than being an object…other than being a 'battery'…_

"You won't understand…" She murmured. "You won't understand what I—we—have been through."

After going through so much—if not too much—Kurapika Kuruta could no longer accept charity or sympathy. She simply could not stand them. Her friends had repeatedly expressed their sympathies towards her situation, but they only served to irk her. She understood that those sympathies were the expression of their kindness for her; to show that they did care about her. In fact, she ought to be grateful that they even did the effort of expressing them _at all_. However, she did not need sympathy. She needed…something else.

"No. I don't." Kuroro agreed.

His response took Kurapika by surprise. Usually, people answered with a silence or an "I'm not sure, but I think I understand your feelings," but Kuroro blatantly said that he indeed did not understand her ordeals. It was…refreshing.

"Because your hardships are different from mine. I don't understand what you have gone through, and you don't understand what I have gone through. In our case, it may as well be a 'never will'." Kuroro continued, with rather deliberate slowness in his speech; as if he was emphasising it.

Kurapika fell into a contemplative silence. He had a point; a good one. They had different background life, different pasts, different lifestyles, different ideologies, different circumstances, different problems—everything about them was different. Well, except for some extraordinary factors like the fact that they both had Ishtar's essence within them, and that they both had to wear their restrainers for the rest of their life; and some trivial facts that they both had AB blood type and the same Nen type. Of course they would have different ordeals, and so it was just natural if they could not comprehend each other's dilemma and hardships.

However, there was still one common thing that they shared in those differences; it was the mere fact that they both were dealing with uncanny situations. Also, it seemed that both had momentarily forgotten that they were sharing yet another common dilemma: Meta.

After studying Kurapika's stunned expression, Kuroro turned around and walked away to follow Ellie's lead.

"Do what you want." He said, before disappearing beyond the door of Bia's pod.

* * *

When he exited the gate to Bia's pod and entered the corridor of lasers—which had been deactivated by Ellie earlier on—the old woman was already waiting for him with a serene look on her wizened face.

"Did Heen do something to her?" Ellie asked softly once he was standing still before her.

Kuroro did not answer her.

"Come now, young man. You seem very upset to me. I can see that really clearly."

Kuroro cocked an eye, silently imploring her to elaborate her point.

"Whenever she mentions Heen's name—quite neutrally, if I may add—you look a tad unhappy to me. How about that?"

"You are very observant for an old lady."

Ellie burst out laughing as if that was the worst joke in the world she had ever heard.

"Really, really… You are too much." She said while shaking her head, the strands of her gray hair swaying frailly as she did so. "Last night Heen came to me and told me that he found two people that he really likes. He said that if it's the two of you, Bia can be saved from this hell for sure."

"What made him think so?" Kuroro asked, genuinely curious. What had the man seen in them that convinced him to go to that length?

"You should ask the person yourself, but just now I can see why he perceives the two of you as a fine couple." Ellie looked into Kuroro's eyes with a wise expression of an old teacher looking at her beloved student. "You indeed are."

Kuroro could not help but heaved a tired sigh.

"I don't see why you people are so convinced that we are that compatible."

Ellie laughed.

"Sometimes, others can see your true self better than you see yourself." She said sagaciously. "And most of the time, it's better to find out on your own than to have others spoon-feeding you with facts."

Never mind the fact that currently Kurapika looked deeply upset by him for some reasons and that he was handling her attitude with cold shoulders—regardless, their interaction was like a dance. At one moment, one would be on the lead while the other would dance along, at another time the role would be reversed. So smoothly all these took place that both of them were none the wiser about the matter.

Now Ellie here had been living her life in Bensalem observing people and the relationships. Perhaps it was also because of her old age and so her keen observation came to her naturally. She could see and sense that this fine young man before her was jealous—terribly so in his own way—towards Heen vis-à-vis a particular young woman. Considering that they were _supposedly _married couple; from the matching rings that they wore as she had seen and from Heen's testimony, it was quite natural for the husband to get jealous when a stranger approached his wife. However, something about them told her that it was not a husband-wife relationship that they had, and she could not really pin-point it.

Nevertheless, what impressed her most was that there was this dynamics between the two of them that was played really smoothly and with so much understanding that she found it such a waste that they had not realised it themselves—as if they perceived that dynamic as something so natural and commonplace. They knew how to respond accordingly to each other's actions while only sparing the barest words, as if words were an unnecessary mode of communication between them. Ellie also understood that it was beyond a mere simpatico relationship.

Of course it would be a fallacy to call their relationship as flawless—all relationship had their own respective flaws and drawbacks without fail—but still it was something too good to be wasted. 'Chemistry like apple and cinnamon' was the phrase that her colleague working in the kitchen had once told her. Perhaps that was the precise illustration for the two of them.

"You aren't telling me."

"No."

"So what's the point of this conversation?"

"You are a good lad." Ellie said without answering the question.

This statement took Kuroro aback, throwing him off the balance. He had not seen this coming. At all. If anything, this was the first time someone ever said that to him right to his face. He had never considered himself a good person, especially considering his reputation and his occupation. In fact, he had never given it a thought as it was nothing of any importance to him. Moreover, Kurapika had so often called him a 'jerk', 'bastard', 'heartless man', and so on and so forth. Silence infused with confusion; mostly coming from Kuroro, enveloped them.

"In what sense?" He finally asked.

"A person like you can tolerate her and her personality. That was evidence enough. Though I'd say that it goes beyond toleration."

"You overheard our conversation." Kuroro said somewhat accusingly, but there was a thin amused smile on his face. This old woman was really something.

"Can't help it." Ellie said with a cackling laugh. "I've got the devil's ears here, living here for so long and eavesdropping on everyone everywhere all the time to find out some loopholes for escape."

"And you have been waiting for someone with the ability to help you." Kuroro deduced.

"Not quite." She said, prompting Kuroro to frown in confusion. Without elaborating further, Ellie said again: "Well, back to what you said to me back there, what do you suggest I do?"

Flawlessly following the conversation as it took a different turn, Kuroro responded with an even tone.

"Depends on what you are capable to do. Can you handle guns?"

"Oh, don't underestimate this old woman. I can handle weapons alright." Ellie said with a scoff as she put her hands on her wide hips in a reproaching manner.

"This particular model?" Kuroro procured the gun that he had stolen from the dead guards—the one he had used to put Heen out of his misery.

"No problem."

"Do you have good aims with projectiles?"

"Depends on what I have to throw. You give me dynamites and grenades, I'll juggle them like a pro. Give me something like a cannonball, I'd end up crushing my bones."

Kuroro could not help but to chuckle at her good humour. He then held out both gun and grenade before her to see, one on each hand.

"Which one do you prefer, guns or grenades? You'll be aiming at the pipe on top of the tank. To be frank, I don't know the capacity of the grenades yet but I can estimate that the gun's power is enough to damage the pipe."

"Give me the gun then. We can't afford taking risks now, can we?" Ellie said while winking at Kuroro.

Kuroro smiled at her as he handed her the gun. He liked this old woman. It was too bad that they would have to leave her behind to take care of the other nine pods. If anything, Kuroro had the impression that she had no wish to leave Bensalem. It was as if all her efforts in gathering information was intended to back-up whoever could escape from the place and bring down the whole organization along the way. She was a peculiar woman.

"What about you? You're fine with grenades only?" Ellie inquired him.

"I have another gun. Plus, I have this as well." Kuroro said while showing the extra gun he had and the bracelet he had on his wrist.

"Good preparation. I'm assured, then. What do you plan to do after you escape from this hell hole?"

Kuroro knew that she was referring to Bia.

"Depends on her decision. The girl will be her responsibility, and so she has to decide on it."

"If she decides to bring Bia along?"

"Unlikely. We have to do a lot of travelling, and her common sense should tell her that it isn't wise to bring along a child. The places we'll be visiting aren't exactly safe." Kuroro said without an ounce of doubt.

"Then what will you do once you find your lost son?" Ellie said without reservation. Heen had told her practically everything he knew of them.

Kuroro froze for a moment.

"I don't know." He answered truthfully with a kind of resigned tone in his voice.

"See when the time comes, huh?" Ellie said with a sympathising tone. "Well, when the time really comes, just listen to your heart, okay? But if you ask me, the three of you ought to spend some quality time together."

"Tell her that." Kuroro said dryly.

"Oh, if you wish so then I will. In that case, shall we go back and check on your wife?" Ellie was about to walk away but she stopped. Glancing over her shoulder, she asked: "By the way, is that really what she is to you? Your wife?"

"…Technically, no."

"I knew it." Ellie said with a laugh, before she walked towards the gate of BIA pod and casually opened the gate, leaving Kuroro speechless.

She really was an odd woman.

* * *

He had been staring at the screen of his laptop for the longest time. It displayed a kind of graph but there was only a single line there. The sandy-brown haired youth exhaled noisily.

_Still nothing…_He thought tiredly.

For one full week he had been waiting there, camping around that particular area—the outskirt of a forest on a hill facing the sea—since Netero's phone call to Gon in the back garden of the Prancing Pony Inn. Netero had asked Gon to invite him to join the so-called rescue team, but he had politely declined. Of course Fino had objected like there was no tomorrow, but he had his reasons and the girl finally (and fortunately) relented.

First of all, his modus operandi was fundamentally different from that of the Hunters. He had no desire to clash with them during the 'operation' and so he preferred to work on his own with his preferred methods. Secondly, although he was indeed going to infiltrate the invisible place once the barrier had been torn down—as per information generously relayed to him via Gon—his main reason of going there would be to learn about the methods and technology used to achieve such perfect optical illusion.

Shalnark had managed to create a kind of electromagnetic sensor for him to see if there were any changes in the current in the air. He was not too worried about his Danchou, really, especially knowing that Kurapika was with him. Although they bickered a lot like some old married couple in their own odd way, they could really back each other up when needed. So long as they were together, it seemed like there was virtually nothing in the world that could bring them down. At least, that was the impression he personally had about them.

"Still nothing?" A voice called out to him.

"Nah." Shalnark shook his head without even bothering to look at the approaching person.

"They sure take their time, huh?"

A man with jet black silky hair and grey eyes stepped forward and stood next to him. Despite the sweltering heat of the evening, the vampire still loitered around as if the sunlight did not affect him at the very least. That was the extent of his miraculous 'sun-block' that he had invented many years back.

Shalnark only responded to Lucian's remark with a casual shrug.

"What about you? What are you doing here?"

"Going to join you to storm the place later." The vampire said as he crossed his arms. "I've got this nasty feeling that things are going to be ugly in there."

As he said so with a grim voice that was so out of place for a carefree person such as him, Lucian trained his gaze to a certain spot on the sea. It was as if he could see Bensalem with his naked eyes.

"I'm worried about Meta." Shalnark muttered as he lazily gazed at the empty sea. The sea was so empty that it gave the impression of 'calm before storm'.

"I'm pretty sure that he's okay." Lucian said easily. _After all, he's got Anansi looking after him. Considering that guy is sooooo much a doting parent, I bet he'd let his head rolls if needed to protect that boy. After all, Meta's somewhat like his…grandson?_ Lucian made a face. _That sounds so gross._

Another sounds of light footsteps falling on the grass reached their ears, but both men did not bother to check on who was coming. After a while, a petit figure emerged from the dark recess of the deeper part of the forest; her purple spiky hair and her light pink outfit seemed to merging with the darkness despite their bright colours. Her cat-like eyes glinted with a sharp feline light.

"How are things going?" She asked with glacial tone.

"Hey, Machi." Shalnark greeted her amiably. "Still nothing, as you can see. How are things on your side?"

Machi narrowed her eyes into dangerous slits.

"You mean on _their_ side." She said with annoyance utterly obvious in her voice. "I don't know and I don't give a damn."

Long story cut short, the day in Yorkshin when Shalnark had returned to the Headquarter with blood all over him and with a slightly dazed look, the Spiders had forced him to spill out the beans. Threatened by Feitan and Nobunaga, Shalnark had relented and told them the summary of what had happened. When he was done, they asked Machi on what her intuition was telling her. When she had told them that they (Kurapika and Danchou) would not be having an easy time in finding that tiny 'copy' of the Kuruta, the Spiders had then decided to disperse and look for the boy.

It was not an action based on concern or the likes, though. It was more like a game that was invented by Phinks (notably). The others had found the game interesting enough, and so they had set the rule as: whoever found the boy first would be the winner and that person would be entitled for one boon from each of the other Spiders—except for Danchou, of course.

"Either way, it's good if they can find him and there's nothing to lose if they can't find him."

"And how exactly Danchou would respond if, let's say, those sapheads do find the boy before he does and so consequently messes up everything? According to what you told us, it seems to me that this Anansi person has a certain plan for Danchou and Kurapika." Machi said critically.

Shalnark froze for a second, before he just shrugged and smiled uncaringly.

"Then that's just too bad for them. I don't have anything to do with it."

"You were the one who told us everything. If anything, Danchou will interrogate you first." Machi scoffed at Shalnark's thoughtlessness.

Clouds of glooms and dooms hung around Shalnark almost immediately after the words left Machi's lips. Lucian patted his shoulders sympathisingly while Machi turned her gelid gaze to the open ocean. The sun was setting, and the water was painted in its rich orangey red hue. It seemed as if the horizon was on fire. The ocean was extraordinarily clam, and the clouds above—scattering here and there and casting unearthly patterns on the heavens—were rigged on the borders and framed with bright silvery scarlet lining.

Inhaling deeply, Machi could catch a whiff of something out of place in the air.

"It seems…" she said at length, earning the attention of the two males "…a storm is coming."

"Please not tonight…" Shalnark muttered hopefully.

The sun disappeared behind the horizon, and darkness started to descend as if closing the curtain of the stage in preparation of the next unfolding act of the grand play.

* * *

When they re-entered Bia's confinement chamber, Kurapika was already meddling with the control interface. Her fingers worked expertly across the control panels, pushing numerous buttons and the gesture making a string of mechanical melody that echoed unsettlingly in that room.

"What do you think you are doing?" Kuroro asked, somewhat wary that by mistake she would raise the alarm.

"Look here." She said without answering his question.

Kuroro compelled with her request and approached her, and so did Ellie. With one deft movement of her finger, the screen before them flashed a display of chart of distribution of the battery source for the electromagnetic barrier. It turned out that Bia alone supplied almost 40% of the whole energy fed into the barrier projector. Kuroro clucked his tongue in admiration.

"After fifteen years and she still has so much to give. What a prodigy." He remarked softly, as if talking to himself.

Aside from that, the screen also displayed the remaining lifespan of the ten batteries. It seemed that most of them were already destined to die very soon. Bia's lifespan, however, was still at an astounding level. Even Kurapika could not help but to cast an admiring look at the white-haired girl floating in the blue chemical. Ellie, on the other hand, was studying the charts carefully. No doubt she was considering which pods she would rescue first. If possible, she would want to rescue those with higher chance of survival first.

"So what's the plan?" She asked while turning to face Kuroro and Ellie.

"We'll take this girl with us and escape. She'll take care of the other nine pods."

Kurapika's complexion instantly turned red in rage.

"What? How could—"

"We've discussed it and considered all situations." Kuroro merely stated, but upon seeing the unforgiving fire in the Kuruta's eyes, he turned to Ellie. "Perhaps you want to explain to her? She won't listen to me."

Ellie chuckled in amusement while Kuroro walked away to give them some privacy. Kurapika glared at Kuroro's retreating back, before turning to look at Ellie with a much softer light in her eyes.

"Listen, girl. Your priority will be to get out of this God-forsaken place safe and sound. The two of you together, plus Bia. That's the commission that Heen has given you, right?"

_Kurapika, don't squander the memories that I have bequeathed to you…_ Heen's words echoed in Kurapika's head. She then chewed the inside of her mouth and continued listening to the elderly woman's words.

"The two—no, three—of you are still so young, still have so much in life ahead of you. Look at me. I know that I won't last very long. I've spent more than half of my life here, and I don't know any other places except for this place. Heen told me a great deal of the places out there that he has visited, and they seem to be wonderful places." She paused. "Despite all the inevitable shortcomings, of course."

Kurapika could not help but to smile at this.

"In any case, you need not concern yourself with us. Look at the chart you've shown us. You can see well that most of the…'batteries'" Ellie's face wrinkled in disgust upon using that word, "won't last very long. They'll die shortly after even if you get them out of the tanks. Just leave that to me. Go and take Bia with you. She still has so much life remaining in her."

"But…"

"Please?" Ellie said imploringly as she took Kurapika's hands in hers. "Don't forget you have a son waiting for you out there."

A pained look flashed across Kurapika's face as Meta's bright face smiled at her in her mind. How she missed that boy so badly. At times like this, she felt like she was such a failure of a mother.

Just as Kurapika was still deep in her pensiveness, Ellie's eyes had strayed to the scars that were stubbornly visible on Kurapika's hands. The old woman inspected the two scars on both palms—she immediately recognised them as old scars—and was mortified to see identical shapes at the back of her hands. She knew the implication; it was a scar born from something penetrating the flesh of her palms.

"What the deuce happened to your hands?" She exclaimed in indignation, as if it was her who sported those scars.

"They are just old scars. From a fight…" Kurapika said brusquely as she hastily tried to retreat her hands but the old woman would not budge.

Kurapika knew that she could not possibly tell the good woman that it had been Kuroro who had inflicted those wounds, and that it had been her decision to leave the scars there. From the perspective of a kind soul like Ellie, that fact would have been something akin to an unforgivable abomination.

"Good Lord in Heaven…" Ellie murmured as she caressed the scars with her thumbs somewhat nervously.

While Kurapika had not provided the details and she had not pried on it, Ellie somehow knew—from the infamous womanly intuition, perhaps—that the scars had something to do with that black-eyed gentleman standing not far from them.

While she had only known them for the briefest time, Ellie could see that their bonds were something that others could not possibly embrace and comprehend so easily. She herself was afraid that should she attempt to dive into it—the bonds that extended so deeply—she would get carried away by the massive current that coursed deep within; just like if one attempted to dive into the heart of a storm.

At the same time, Kurapika was eternally glad that the old woman had not uttered words of expressions of sympathy. When Ellie was done wallowing in silence for the ill fate that had seemingly cursed the blonde young woman with those permanent scars, Ellie drew a long breath and looked into Kurapika's clear aquamarine eyes.

"In any case, I just want to tell you," Ellie reached out and cupped Kurapika's cheek with one of her wrinkled hand, "that a child always needs _both_ parents."

Kurapika's eyes widened but she said nothing. From the tone of the elderly woman, Kurapika knew that it was the ultimate thing that she had wanted to tell the Kuruta. Ellie smiled at her tenderly.

"Give him a chance, okay?"

Kurapika had her eyes downcast as she considered this. She was aware, as the small voice at the back of her mind reminded her, that this was so much like the time during Ishtar's dying time—when she had promised the black-haired woman in her deathbed that she was going to look after Kuroro Lucifer. That time, she had not kept her words. This time, she had to. With more resolution, Kurapika looked up and gazed straight into Ellie's small eyes. She then nodded firmly with her jaws set straight with confidence. Seeing this, Ellie broke into a bright smile. With a power that was so unprecedented coming from such a small, old body, Ellie pulled Kurapika towards her and gave her a warm embrace.

"May you and your family be blessed." She whispered to her.

_My family…_ Kurapika repeated the words in her mind. The concept of her with Meta and Kuroro as a family was something that was not easy to digest. Nevertheless, it had a nice ring to it.

After Ellie finally let go of her and gave her a final encouraging smile, they walked towards the waiting Kuroro. He had his hands shoved into the pocket of his dark pants. His face was unreadable, but his eyes shone with anticipation.

"Ready?" He asked the two females.

"Any time." The old woman said while taking out the gun Kuroro had given her earlier and handled it with such expertise that Kurapika—who was standing slightly behind her—had to stare at her with marvel. Ellie was true to her words when she said she could handle guns.

Kuroro turned to Kurapika and their eyes met. For a second they held their gazes, before Kurapika finally nodded. With the still stoic face, Kuroro took the bracelet from his wrist and tossed it to Kurapika. The latter caught the object easily with one hand and regarded the former with a bewildered look that demanded for an explanation.

"Have you handled guns before?" He asked her.

"Once." She answered. She had only used a gun once during the time of her occupation as Nostrad's bodyguard. At that time, she decided that guns and her had really bad affinity. "And it wasn't pretty." She admitted with slight embarrassment in her voice.

"I thought so. You'll take the girl with you and I will cover for you, but you still need your Nen Chains to defend yourself. We can't afford risks."

"So you are so good with guns, huh?" Kurapika said sceptically.

"At least better than you." He said with a smirk.

Kurapika scowled but said nothing to refute his statement. She put on the bracelet and felt the warm course of her Nen within her. It was a very pleasant sensation. She tried summoning her Nen Chain, and they appeared before her with a characteristic metallic sound of chains moving. She felt positively elated to be in touch with her Nen, it seemed to renewed her strength altogether.

"Ready?" Kuroro asked again.

"Whenever you are." She responded coolly. She even allowed a small smile graced her lips.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__I think this chapter's kinda random, and more like the backdrop story for this so-called Bensalem arc. Oh well… Ellie is a very motherly figure here, even Kuroro is somewhat affected, I guess? Hehehehe… _

_By the by, out of curiosity I searched the meaning of "Heen" and by accident I found that it could mean 'an apparently pleasant stranger from whom one slowly discovers that one cannot politely disengage'. That's so befitting Heen in this story, considering how chatty he is and considering that both Kurapika and Kuroro had to cut him of in the middle of his sentence to get him to stop chattering like there's no tomorrow. Bwahahaha XD Also, I just found out that "Bia" could mean 'force' in Greek and 'white, fair' in Italian; which is also befitting for her, while "Ellie" means 'noble'. I can't help but to marvel on how beautifully things are piecing up together, since all these names I came up with on the spot without any prior researches or references. _

_**Next: **__All preparation was complete, and they were about to execute their 'grand' plan of escape with Ellie's help. How would it go? The whole thing became a grand stage for all parties involved; including the Hunters Association, Gon and friends, the Spiders, Lucian, and others. _


	15. Chapter 13: Exodus

_**Disclaimer: **__Still not mine._

_**Story so far:**__ Bensalem continued sailing across the ocean, blissfully unaware that there were forces waiting to crush it; both from the outside and the inside. Would Kurapika and Kuroro succeed in their escape? What would become of the kind old lady Ellie?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 13**

_**EXODUS**_

_**

* * *

**_

"Give me five minutes. That should be more than enough time for me to reach the inner chamber of the neighbouring pod." Ellie said as she walked towards the corridor of lasers—which she deactivated easily—which carrying her cleaning gadget. "Godspeed to the two of you."

"Ellie." Kurapika called out. "Be safe."

The elderly woman gave her one charming look and raised her fist to the air as if reassuring her that she could take on a grown man on her own. With long and confident strides, Ellie disappeared behind the sliding metallic door as she walked down the deactivated corridor of lasers. Kurapika could not help but to stare at the closing door as uneasiness gnawed at her heart. She did not feel right to leave a daunting task to such an old woman.

_I know that I won't last very long,_ she had said. The manner of her words was as if she was resigned to die in that God-forsaken place.

"That is her resolute. Leave her be, Kurapika." Kuroro told her with unemotional voice.

Grunting incoherently, Kurapika pursued the matter no further. Knowing full well that arguing with that man could be a very taxing and thoroughly pointless in this situation, she decided not to refute his points despite how vexed she was.

Two minutes passed and Kurapika spent it rehearsing the plan that they had formulated. Basically they would get Bia out of the tank, rushed out of the Heart, and by relying on Heen's memories that had been inherited by Kurapika they would get to the basement of Bensalem where the boats were kept. They would get their hands on a small boat for their escape—it was included in the memories how to get into the dock. Those boats were special because they were designed so that the electromagnetic force would not affect them. Meanwhile, Ellie would keep damaging the main pipes that transferred the energy harvested from the 'batteries' to the barrier projectors. The old woman was adamant on putting herself on the line of danger, and Kurapika could do nothing to change the woman's determination.

Overtime, she grew tired of rehearsing the plan and she found herself very curious about the 'personal affair' that he had discussed with Ellie.

"I know that it may not be my right to know, but would you care tell me what Ellie said to you out there?" She asked coolly. Kurapika marvelled on how unexpectedly smooth her words flowed from her mouth.

For a moment Kuroro seemed like he was about to tell her that it was none of her business, but at the last moment he reconsidered it. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth.

"She told me that we are a fine couple." He said deadpan, causing Kurapika to choke—on her saliva, perhaps?—and he added with an offhand shrug at the end of his words, "and that if it's us, this girl can be saved. One way or another."

"A fine couple? Us?" Kurapika exclaimed with horrified tone. "I don't—how did they come up with such outrageous idea?"

"Beats me. She won't tell me, saying that it's for us to find out." Her companion answered with bored tone.

Kuroro looked at her from the corner of his eyes, and he could clearly see that she seemed utterly distraught by the concept of 'fine couple'. It was amusing to see her expression, really. Several seconds of silence descended. As they waited for the promised five minutes to pass to allow ample time for Ellie to prepare herself, Kurapika looked at Bia—confined in the cold embrace of the blue liquid—with an empathic light in her eyes. White puffs of cold breath escaped from the slight partition of her lips and her nostrils.

"She also said that we ought to spend some quality time together." Kuroro suddenly said, shattering the silence.

Kurapika shot him a dubious look.

"Do you understand what _quality time_ means?"

"I suppose I do." Kuroro turned to fully regard her. "Will we?"

Kurapika averted her gaze to Bia's tank; escaping Kuroro's searching gaze. Finally, after some suspended silence, she answered:

"We have to."

Satisfied with her answer, Kuroro said no further. Releasing the safety lock of his gun, he studied the glass case of the tank that was a good several inches thick. From that distance, the impact of one shot from that gun should be sufficient to at least make a crack in the tank. Two shots should be enough to shatter the tank, allowing the liquid to escape the confinement and flooded the entire floor of the chamber. It was a messy method but they had no other options. Given the choice, they would prefer to use the control system to drain the chemical and open the tank but there was a problem: they did not have the password to access the operating system of the tank.

The melodious clinging sound of Kurapika's Nen chain echoed thinly in that chamber. The chain stood like a metal snake ready to strike at its prey and it was brimming with energy.

"It's been five minutes." Kurapika said quietly.

Kuroro raised his gun-wielding arm and trained the mouth of his normal-sized-but-with-shotgun-capacity gun at the glass tank that was containing Bia; his gait easy and casual, but he did not pull the trigger. Pulling a faint smirk, he spoke softly at her:

"Lady's first, then."

With a dry "hmph", Kurapika let her Nen chain lunged at the thick pipe perching on top of the tank.

* * *

Under normal circumstances, it was in his nature to be extremely cranky like a giant bird whose feathers were ruffled. This time, however, Cash had no time to be moody as the drastic change of the electromagnetic current of the air around the Danger Zone knocked him off his balance. In his shock, he even stumbled onto the carpeted floor like a klutz as he tried to get up in hurry.

"CHAIRMAN! IT'S TIME!" He roared as he ran towards Netero's personal office in the blimp.

Although Cash was still considerably far from Netero's office, apparently the old man heard him since the alarm blared in the next second. The loudspeakers buzzed into life and Netero's voice was broadcasted through the entire blimp and also to the other blimps that belonged to the Hunters Association.

**[All Hunters please proceed to their stations and ready themselves for the coming battle. We will make our move once the passage to the Danger Zone is confirmed.]**

As he dashed towards the control room without wasting a single second, the experienced Hunter could not help but to wonder what had happened inside the Danger Zone that had caused the electromagnetic force to drop so drastically.

_Really, Kurapika. What in the Devil's name did you do this time round?_ He thought with admiration.

Cash threw the door open and quickly approached the navigators who were all in stand-by mode and were ready for his commands.

"The Danger Zone is 4 km to the West and 8.2 km to the North from this blimp. Their barrier has dropped by roughly 40 percent—don't ask me any bloody questions about it—now move it!"

The Hunter's face was flushed with pure excitement as he could feel his adrenaline pumping in his system. He could not wait to get into action. His body had been getting lethargic due to lack of activity for the past week.

* * *

The laptop gave a startling pitch that sounded so much like the beeping of electrocardiograms. Shalnark, who had been dozing off while waiting gave a yelp of surprise as he scrambled to his feet. Rubbing his sleepy eyes with the back of his hand, he narrowed his eyes as he looked to the direction of his laptop. Someone was already crouching over it, studying it intently.

"What does it say?" Shalnark asked somewhat groggily.

"The barrier's going down to 60 percent," said Lucian curtly due to the excitement hammering in his chest. Their patient-wearing reconnoitre was paying off.

"I don't see anything out there, though." The sandy-brown haired youth said while gazing at the calm sea.

"Wait for a while longer." Machi said in husky voice. "I have the feeling that it's not over yet."

A few minutes later, the graph showed just exactly what Machi had predicted. The percentage went down to 55 percent. Another few minutes, it went to 49 percent. As the laptop kept giving off those mechanical beeps, the three of them exchanged brief glances.

_What on Earth is happening in there?_

_

* * *

_

Despite water dripping from the unconscious little girl cradled securely in her arms, Kurapika still managed to run down the twisting corridors without slipping. The scream of the alarm filled the entire place, almost deafening them. The moment the alarm rang, soldiers started flooding the entire place like ants whose nest was on fire. Without any changes whatsoever in his indifferent visage, Kuroro took out his gun and started gunning down whoever stood in his way. Kurapika followed behind him, careful not to trip on the dead bodies that were littering the floor in Kuroro's wake. In the scene when Kuroro could not protect her; that was when there were people shooting from behind, Kurapika could easily take care of it with her Nen chains enveloping her like protective snake.

Kurapika made a deliberate attempt to look straight and not down, for she had no wish to stare into those death-stricken faces of the poor soldiers who just happened to ran into a gun-wielding Kuroro Lucifer. Worse still, she was the reason why he kept shooting down those people.

Making use whatever time they had before swarms of soldiers started getting hot on their heels, Kurapika and Kuroro made their way as fast as possible to the dock of the boats.

**[Damage in the Heart. Power down to 55%]**

Kurapika gulped down hard. As long as the speaker kept reporting the plummeting energy, it was like a blessed announced to Kurapika's ears; telling her that Ellie was still alive. When they finally reached the gate of the dock, Kurapika rapidly tapped on the control panel to insert the code to open the gate to the dock as how Heen's memories told her. There was a soft beeping sound as the system announced the code as correct. The gate slid open and light spilled into the pitch-black dock. Even before the gate was completely open, Kurapika and Kuroro had slipped into the dock. Hurriedly Kurapika typed at the control panel inside to close the gate promptly.

**[Damage in the Heart. Power down to 49%]**

Kurapika gave a hitched breath and froze for a millisecond, but she quickly turned to Kuroro with a determined look on her face.

"Hold her." Kurapika whispered urgently, and before Kuroro could utter a syllable of protest, the thoroughly soaked white-haired girl was already thrust into his arms.

Kurapika had been the one to carry the poor comatose girl all the way from the damaged tank to the dock. Kuroro did help taking the cables off the girl, but he had never expected the girl to be THAT light. It was as if she had no weight at all. She was nothing but bones and skin. Kuroro then understood why Kurapika had earlier given a very mortified expression the moment she hauled the girl out of the tank. The girl made not even the slightest twitch as she was being handled down to him—it was as if she was a mere lifeless doll.

**[Damage in the Heart. Power down to 43%]**

In the darkness, Kuroro could hear Kurapika making a noise that sounded like a sigh of relief as the announcement reached their ears. It was getting amusing to see her giving such reaction every time she heard the announcement.

Light suddenly flooded the entire dock, revealing the rows of small neat boats ready to be launched at any moment of need. There were iron clamps on the bellies of the boats, securing them to the rails on which the boats were sitting individually. His eyes quickly adjusting to the new brightness of the room, Kuroro spotted Kurapika moving to the main control panel. She tapped her fingers deftly on the control panel, and suddenly the engine of one of the boats came to life. Understanding that Kurapika had chosen that boat, Kuroro went over to that particular boat and laid Bia on the back seat. He deliberately seated himself on the driver seat.

"What now?" He asked her as she went to take a seat next to him.

Before Kurapika had the time to answer him, the rail below the boat suddenly started falling into jerky motions at first, and then into smooth motion. As if the boat itself had decided to answer Kuroro, it began moving along and passed through a gate into another different room that looked like an empty lobby. The gate then closed soundlessly behind them.

* * *

While the crews changed the direction of the blimp, Cash closed his eyes and extended his Nen to study the change of the electromagnetic force around that devilish place. He frowned in confusion and uneasy as he noticed the peculiarity of the trend; it was practically plummeting by chunks of percentages.

"Going down again. Now it's at 55 percent." A few minutes of pause. "49 percent!"

"Cash, it's visible! We can see the place!" One of the navigators cried out in excitement.

"43 percent!"

Meanwhile, Netero was standing by the large glass wall of his office that overlooked the vast ocean below his ship as he stroked his beloved beard. Down there, among the dense blue of the deep ocean, the water surface seemed to ripple in a very irregular pattern while it was actually the atmosphere that wavered and flickered unnaturally. As the electromagnetic barrier crumbled bits by bits, the real face of Bensalem was slowly exposed for the world to see.

A smirk of excitement graced Netero's wrinkled face as his snow-white beard curved downwards, forming an obvious crescent. He then took out his cell-phone and dialled a certain number.

"The game begins now."

* * *

"_Sfinte sisoe_… (holy shit)" The man with silky black hair muttered as he studied the fluctuating lines flashing on the screen of the laptop. It did not take a genius to interpret the meaning of the ever decreasing trend of the graph.

Shalnark peered from behind Lucian's shoulder to see what was going on and in no time his mouth went ajar so huge that a swarm of bees could fit into his open mouth.

"Wow…"

"Well, look what do we have over there." A feminine voice said glacially.

Without glancing at the purple-haired young woman standing behind them, both men looked up to the direction of the sea and was jaw-dropped to see a massive fortress floating on the ocean surface with ominous clouds surrounding it like a cloak. The most bizarre aspect of the already unsettling scenery was the distortion of the fortress against the Nature backdrop. The fortress seemed to undulate like a snake slithering according to the melody played by its handler, but as seconds ticked by the movement became more erratic until finally the image settled into one definite picture.

"Shall we go now?" Machi asked with dead tone; though there was a very fine scintilla of excitement underlying her voice, as she adjusted the small needle pillow perching on her wristband.

"_Sigur lucru_ (sure thing)." Lucian said with a grin as he tied back his hair neatly with a silk ribbon.

"Careful, guys. The electromagnetic force field is still up at 36 percent." Shalnark announced as he gave a final glance at his laptop screen before closing it with one smooth movement of his hand.

Machi shot Shalnark a dirty look, while Lucian simply laughed it off. The vampire gestured at them to follow him—the helicopter that he had personally prepared with the help of his connection was waiting for them in the highest part of the hill.

"Won't be a problem."

* * *

In the quiet darkness of falling dusk; where the sound of Gon's soft breathing was already loud enough, Leorio's snoring was maddeningly deafening. The two of them decided to take a short nap while Killua opted to stand guard, but he was beginning to regret letting Leorio get his nap. He was practically driving the poor Zaoldyck heir to the edge of his sanity. Killua was so tempted to rearrange the structure of the good doctor's throat to make him stop snoring like a pig.

Just as he was flexing his fingers in irritation, a very out-of-place change in the scenery across the ocean stole his attention and the appealing thought of modifying Leorio's throat was thrown into the ocean. Instead, he shook Gon awake and he utilised his leg to kick Leorio awake, while at the same time he shouted at them to "WAKE UP!"

Leorio jerked awake with grunt of agony due to the sharp kick delivered to his side. Gon rubbed his eyes sleepily as he muttered incoherently. Irritated, Killua seized Gon's face and twisted it so that Gon was looking directly at the wavering atmosphere. In that instant, his eyes snapped open.

"Oh. My. Gawsh! Leorio, get up!" Gon cried out as he delivered another kick to Leorio—this time it hit the poor doctor's shin.

Instead of getting up, obviously Leorio writhed in pain as he clutched both his abused side and shin. He muttered curses under his breath, but tried to get up as soon as possible before receiving yet another assault from his younger companions. Just as Leorio _finally_ managed to sit up and gawked at the spooky scenery there in the middle of the ocean, a cell phone rang—Gon's.

Exactly like a klutz, Gon took out his cell phone and answered the call with stuttering voice.

"P, p, president Netero! I saw—what?" Gon stopped stuttering and fell into dumbstruck silence. "Really? We can move now?"

Killua and Leorio in immediate response jumped to their feet and rushed to a nearby bush that was sitting halfway on the surface of the water. Just as Gon finished the call and shoved the cell phone into his pocket, a roaring sound of an engine coming to life could be heard from behind the bush. Soon enough, a small boat emerged from the bush with Leorio sitting on the driver seat and Killua sitting on the backseat. The boat started making its way towards the floating fortress as Gon ran towards it, made an astounding leap and landed perfectly on the backseat just next to Killua.

"Let's go!"

* * *

**[Damage in the Heart. Power down to 36%]**

Kurapika held her breath, but gave no more funny reactions. Kuroro had to harden the muscles around his mouth to prevent him from grinning. If Kurapika saw him, she would yell her heads off at him and they could not afford to waste time dealing with her temper at the moment. It was better to avoid the avoidable, after all. Just as the boat was in the middle of the lobby, the floor budged and started moving upwards.

"The elevator." Kurapika said with held breath. "The basement is underwater, so now we are going to the launcher pad that will…" she rolled her tongued in search of a suitable word, "…eject this boat into the open sea."

"I see," was all that Kuroro said as he observed his surrounding. The place indeed had a very intriguing technology. If only the situation was different, he would have told Shalnark to go there and study the technology, and he could wager all his money that the Spider could not ask for anything better.

Kurapika twisted her body above the waist so that she could study Bia; who was lying peacefully on the upholstered backseat. Presently out of the blue chemical, the olive colour of her skin was more apparent; suggesting that she was indeed related to Heen, although her complexion was generally deathly pale. Chronologically, Bia was supposed to be 25 years old—older than Kurapika by one year—while her body was only that of a 10 years old. She had no idea on how she would handle her later.

"Let's save that problem for later." Kuroro suddenly said to her with soft voice, understanding from her expression what was going on in her head. "Focus on the present."

"You don't have to tell me that." She snapped at him, but settled down in her seat.

**[Damage in the Heart. Power down to 28%]**

In nervousness, she bit her lower lips but maintained her steady breathing. It seemed like forever until the elevator finally stopped moving and the clamp below the boat released its grip from the body of the boat. The boat shook a bit but settled down quickly. As the gate of the launcher pad budged open and dim darkness of the dusk from outside spilled into the room, the announcement suddenly brought nightmarish news to them—or to be exact, to Kurapika.

**[Calculating aggregate damage. Adjusting the system in the Heart. Reassembling energy supply from the remaining four batteries.]**

Kurapika gave a choked sound and ducked her head. She understood the implication of that announcement. Kuroro said nothing but his demeanour suggested respect for the sacrifice that Ellie had given for them.

"She has done so much." He said with solemn voice.

"Too much." Kurapika whispered with tremulous voice as she raised her hand to cover her face and shook her head in grief. She did not, however, shed a single tear. Her golden hair swayed slightly, following the gesture of her head.

After a few seconds, the gate had open to the fullest and thus allowing them the view of the dark open ocean before them. With a sharp inhale of breath, Kurapika looked up and gazed with steady eyes to the vast stretch of the dark water. In the darkness of the night, the ocean seemed treacherously menacing. Although she had not come to term with Ellie's presumed tragic death, she was aware that she had to move on—because there was another life to be saved there, laying helplessly on the backseat of that very same boat.

"People are born to die in the end. Every single one of us will eventually die, including you and me." Kuroro said smoothly as he fingered the steer wheel of the boat that he was holding. "It only depends on the time assigned to the different individuals."

There was silence for a second, before Kurapika spoke up with glacial voice.

"Is that how you live your life? With the belief that you can die any time when fate dictates it?"

Kuroro turned his head sideways to give her a three-quarter view of his blessedly handsome face. His lips were upturned into an enigmatic smile and Kurapika found herself unable to tear her eyes away from his face. There was something hair-raising the way he looked at her and the way he smiled.

"I believe in fate's unique design for different people, including their allotted lifespan." He said quietly.

Without being aware of it, Kurapika had held her breath.

"However…" He continued but paused as he reached out one hand towards her. His fingers took a lock of her golden hair. "I also believe that there are things worth fighting for, even against fate itself."

He flicked the strands of her hair with one slick movement of his sinewy fingers that made her flinch and bat her eyelashes in surprise, but marvellously she did not make any fierce comeback at him as she usually did. Kuroro withdrew his hand and reassumed his previous neutral position as the driver of the boat. That gesture threw Kurapika off her equilibrium and she could only stare at the man dumbly.

Before Kurapika could rearrange her thought properly, the launcher ejected the boat from the pad and onto the ocean surface the boat sailed smoothly, taking along its three passengers aboard.

* * *

The situation in Bensalem could only be described as apocalyptic.

The moment the massive fortress was exposed, a handful of blimps belonging to the Hunters Association had surrounded the fortress, forming a cordon around the steel-clad structure. Hunters rained down from the blimps, jumping straight into the floating edifice. They were all bloodthirsty hounds, chosen by Netero himself as he had personally interviewed every single one of them for every annual Hunters Examinations. They were the most cold-blooded Hunters with no qualms in extinguishing another life for sensible cause.

Soldiers erupted from all openings of the fortress like ants pouring from their nests, all armed to their teeth. They fired at the invading Hunters, but the electromagnetic barrier was damaged too much and it could do naught to hinder those professional Hunters from utilising their Nen to the best of their abilities for both defence and offence. Bodies started falling limply onto the hard, metal floor of the structure. Nen-users started emerging from within the massive steel body, and fiercer battles were engaged by fellow Nen-users.

A very distinguishable battle cry could be heard coming from a particular dark-skinned man with outrageous dread-lock hair in the colour of the blackest coal. The electromagnetic force field in Bensalem was already impaired beyond repair—with all due respect to Ellie's efforts—and so it was a child's play for Cash to tweak the provided electromagnetic force to his advantage. He was having so much fun electrocuting the soldiers and temporarily disabling Bensalem's Nen-users that he (kind of) forgot his main duty: to search for the world's last living Kuruta.

Among the cordon of blimps in the pitch-black night sky was a lone helicopter. It hovered around Bensalem but at higher altitude to avoid the electromagnetic force field from interfering with the helicopter's navigation system—which was notably less advanced than the blimps'. Soon enough, the helicopter ejected its passengers out into the open sky. Out of the three passengers, only two jumped without hesitation. The last one, however, paused for a while to give the pilot one last instruction:

"Wait on that hill again until I contact you."

"_Compris__,__jeune maître__. _(understood, young master.)"

"_Merci_, (Thanks)" yelled the Wallachia-born vampire above the deafening batting sound of the helicopter's propellers at the French man navigating the helicopter. He then jumped into the darkness of the night to join his two other companions; his black cloak billowing in his wake like the wings of a giant black bird.

Upon landing on the metal floor of Bensalem's outer deck, Shalnark and Machi were already waiting for him somewhat impatiently. Glancing around the vicinity, he saw the normal soldiers were already down—either dead or out cold. Shaking his head in dismay, Lucian approached one of the dead bodies and crouched over it.

"What are you doing?" Shalnark asked curiously.

"Getting information." The vampire answered as he flexed the muscles of his fingers and so his fingernails extended longer—much like what Killua did with his fingers when he attempted to extract beating hearts from his assassination victims. With one shift slicing movement of his hand, he tore a deep cut across the dead man's wrists. Fresh blood quickly overflowed from the cut, and the vampire bent down to lick at the open wound.

Licking his lips clean while at the same time making sure that not a speck of blood stained his clean shirt, Lucian closed his eyes and sifted through the memories of the place harvested from the dead man.

"Okay, so to summarise everything: something happened to the Heart of this place; that is the place where they derived their power source to erect that electromagnetic barrier. It seems that two of their newest Nen-users captives have somewhat escaped—"

"That would be Danchou and Kurapika!" Shalnark exclaimed excitedly.

"_Nebun oameni…_ (crazy people)" Lucian muttered. "So what are you guys going to do now?" He asked while turning to his two companions.

"I'll be looking for them." Machi simply said, before she turned around and began walking away; her tiny figure soon was drowned in the sea of people.

"I'm going to the Heart. I'm really curious about the power source. If possible, I want to study the technology." Shalnark said lightly. "What about you? Aren't you here to look for them as well?"

Lucian narrowed his eyes. From what he managed to gather from the dead soldier's blood, there had been an announcement earlier that the dock in the basement had apparently been breached and a boat was taken. He could easily deduce that the two had made their escapes well. Then again, he decided not to tell Machi because his deduction might be wrong after all.

"I'll leave the searching to Machi. I'm interested in the inner structure of this place. I shall go with you, I think."

"Okay."

* * *

The boat sailed smoothly as if it was gliding. All kind of light had been switched off from the boat to avoid any discovery by the 'mother ship'. Thick silence enveloped it, along with darkness that surrounded the world. After a few minutes and after covering only several hundred of metres, a figure sitting on the passenger seat suddenly stood up brusquely. The driver never stopped the boat, but he cast a questioning look at the standing blonde next to him.

"The sea is too calm." Kurapika suddenly said with worried tone. There was literally no wind at all. This kind of calmness bore a certain ill-omen that she could not simply shrug off. After a while, she finally settled with one conclusion but not without having her face turned ashen pale. "A storm is brewing."

There could be no worse scenario for them—on a plain standard-issued boat, with a dying little girl in their hands, in the middle of the sea. If a storm hit them head-on, their fates were as good as sealed. In such dense darkness, they could not make out the outline of the nearest shore—which actually was the shore from where Gon and his friends had departed.

"Then we should make haste and find a shore." Kuroro answered shortly and slammed on the gas.

Just as they had gained a good few hundred of metres more, Kurapika caught something blinking up there in the darkness of the night sky. As they gained more distance from Bensalem and Kurapika's eyes started adjusting to the darkness of the night, she could make out the vague form of the cordon of blimps hovering above the floating fortress.

Unfortunately for her, she had no idea that those blimps belonged to the Hunters Association as the logo was invisible in the night. If anything, she had an undue fear that those blimps belonged to the organization even. As such, she said nothing of it to Kuroro and let the man drove the boat at top speed.

* * *

Gon, Killua, and Leorio had just reached the vicinity of the floating edifice in their boat when suddenly a sound of gate opening could be heard. Since the beginning they already had the lamps off, so Leorio hurriedly turned off the engine and the three of them fell into stealthy silence.

Not from far off, they could make out the silhouette of small boats emerging from the wall of Bensalem. The moment the boats touched the water surface, the jet engines were spurred to the maximum and those boats looked as if they flew above the water with vengeance. No doubt they were after certain fugitives, but Gon and his friends were clueless about that. If anything, they perceived it as the perfect situation for them to infiltrate the massive fortress.

Quickly turning on the engine and making an awesome turn with the boat, Leorio steered the boat to slip into the opening on the wall of the floating fortress. They did not get in most peacefully, though. Knowing that there ought to be people inside that, Leorio had practically flown the boat into the dock, surprising the life out of the residents.

Long story cut short, they disarmed the people there without taking any casualties (naturally), and they proceeded with screening the place for Kurapika. They tried to track Kurapika's Nen but the God-forsaken place was do damn huge they had no idea on how and where to start from.

"What now?" Leorio whined. They were practically in the nest of their enemy.

Killua threw a tentative glance to Gon.

"Should we try En?"

"I guess there's no helping it."

Leorio's jaws dropped to the metal floor.

"C'mon! You gotta be kidding me! You wanna use your En here in this freaking huge place? Just how much can you extend your En? No, no, no! In the first place, can you even use En?"

"Shut up, O-san. Don't put us in your level." Killua said curtly, and the words; had it been materialised, sliced open Leorio's chest and mutilated his heart like a brand new scalpel.

"We've been practicing, Leorio. So it's alright!" Gon said cheerily.

"Gon…" Leorio looked at the soft-hearted boy with tearful eyes. He then hugged him like he was his lifeline. "You are soooooooooooo nice~~ Unlike this obnoxious little—"

Killua kicked his shin mercilessly.

"Quit acting like a sissy and get the job done!" He growled and stomped his way down a corridor he had seemingly chosen randomly, leaving Leorio to roll on the wall while cradling his yet-again-abused leg.

Killua took a random spot and closed his eyes. He steadied his breathing and managed his Nen to flow smoothly. When he felt that he was ready both in body and mental, he let his Nen exploded; making a spherical projection that centred on him. It extended up to several hundred metres only but considering that this was Killua, he managed to pick up the different identities of those who happened to be within the radius of his En. In that light, it was not required for him to maintain his En for too long to be able to distinguish the people around him and so he could save his energy. As soon as his En extended, it retracted back into him in milliseconds. Gon waited patiently while Leorio had the expression as if he had been run over by unseen typhoon.

"W, w, what was that?" Having his Nen trained further, Leorio had keener sensitivity than ever before.

"En, dummy. By the way, I sensed that _guy_ just at the vicinity of my En."

"Which _guy_?" Gon asked while cocking his head to one side.

"That creepy guy with gypsum skin."

* * *

"Hey! I never thought I'd meet you kids here!" Lucian exclaimed in genuine surprise.

The three youngsters had been running down the corridor at top speed when after a turn they spotted a certain black-haired man in jet black cloak sauntering down the aisle encased in metal. He seemed to have just exited a certain room.

"Kids…" Veins popped on Killua's forehead.

"Lucian!" Gon chirped excitedly, overshadowing Killua's murderous aura—which was born as the consequence of being called a 'kid'.

The silver-haired Zaoldyck positively hated being called a 'kid' since not only that he was a self-proclaimed mature young man (as he often declared), but also he was already nearing twenty years old! To be honest, Killua actually had no right to be angry at Lucian for being called a 'kid'. For one, he really was a 'kid' in the presence of a creature whose age was already three digits in number.

**[Disengaging the barrier from the power source. Barrier will be completely switched off.]**

The announcement came very suddenly, but Lucian did not look so much as impressed by it.

"I see that Shalnark has managed to learn something out of the system." Lucian muttered as he indiscreetly looked at the direction of the Heart. Shalnark apparently had the good sense of tearing down the barrier completely so as not to hinder their helicopter from fetching them later.

"Shalnark's here too? What are you guys doing here?" Gon asked.

Lucian's smile froze.

"Looking for a certain couple who can't help but to get into more and more troubles, one being more appalling than the previous ones." Lucian answered deadpan with a sideway tired sigh.

"So what have you found so far? Have you seen them?" Leorio asked curiously, though he made no move to approach the vampire. If anything, Leorio was (childishly) afraid that Lucian might get hungry out of the blue and decided to take a 'sip' of his blood.

This time, the vampire's smile dropped. He turned his head to the direction of the open door that was behind him. The control panel next to the door had been damaged; seemingly by being shot from point-blank range, and on the floor were dead soldiers whose heads had been grotesquely twisted. Ignoring the dead guards with their best, the trio peeked into that particular room.

The rusty smell of blood quickly invaded their senses of smell immediately. Leorio and Gon quickly clamped their noses with their hands, while Killua was doing better since he had been so used to the tangy smell of gore during his earlier childhood when he was still active in his family business. Killua approached the almost-beyond-recognition body of a tall man.

"Who's that poor guy?" Gon asked Lucian in a way as if he was the wronged one.

"…From what I've gathered from the data," Lucian deliberately left out the 'from his blood' part so as to avoid the good doctor from getting all freaked out, "he has a great deal to do with those two."

"In what sense?"

"One is that he's the one who helped them with their escape." Lucian answered, generously leaving out the fact that he had also been the one who kidnapped them in the first place.

"What? So they've already escaped?" Gon asked with exultant voice. Killua, meanwhile, was clucking his tongue sharply in annoyance and muttered a "So we're only wasting our time here."

"I perceive so. By boat, if all went well."

Lucian threw a glance over his shoulder towards the direction of the Heart of Bensalem; where he had come from earlier. He had gone there straight with Shalnark, and something that they found in there had prompted him to search for Heen.

xXx

Upon reaching the first gate of the Heart, Shalnark immediately did something God-knows-what with the control panel until the system somehow gave in to his command and allowed them inside the Heart. As they waltzed into the compound as if they owned the place, they found some of the pods giving out thin smokes—the tell-tale that something had exploded within the inner chamber.

After inspecting the closest one—number 1 ARISTA pod—they found out that the main pipe of the enormous tank that confined a young girl within had been blasted. They checked the second pod and were surprised to find the content of the tank missing while they were expecting a human confined within as well. Before they could inspect the next smoking pod, they heard a bang sound that was characteristic of a gun shot. Rushing to the scene—which was number 10 JEROME pod—what they found was a comatose boy encased in the tank, an old woman facing downwards with crimson blood pooling beneath her lifeless body, and a bespectacled middle-aged man in uniform was standing with a gun in his hand—obviously the murderer. Curiously, though, the old woman herself had been holding a gun before her death.

The uniformed man; pale and on the verge of having a nervous breakdown, spun on his heels and started showering them with bullets. Easily dodging the bullets and appearing behind him in the next instance, Lucian extended all four nails of his hand and made a cut-throat move so swiftly that it produced only a blur. The man's throat was beautifully sliced, and blood gushes from it as water would from a fountain. Shalnark raised an eyebrow at his mildly-savage behaviour.

"For your information," Lucian had said while looking down at blood of the fallen man—it smelled so delicious that his eyes had dilated and turned red in an instant. "I am a feminist." He cast a pitying glance at the old woman. "And it is against my policy to raise my hand against a helpless old woman."

"Though she isn't necessarily harmless," Shalnark added with good humour as he referred to the gun that she was holding, "therefore not exactly helpless."

"The inconsequential details aside." Lucian stated coldly. "But still…" Lucian approached the old woman. "I'd wager she has her own story about this particular circumstance. Shall we try to find out?"

"Up to you." Shalnark shrugged noncommittally.

As Lucian bent down to take a drop of the old woman's blood with his sinewy finger, Shalnark approached the control panels on the wall and began studying them intently. Soon enough, he was already tapping on the panels with the curiosity of a toddler. Lucian licked the blood sample on his finger delicately and closed his eyes. Images of memories inundated his mind; he discarded the older memories but was astounded to discover how crucial the latest memories were. He grasped at those memories and stored them well in his own memories.

"_O, Doamne…_ (Oh, God)" He whispered in slight horror.

"What?" Shalnark asked over his shoulders.

"This old woman. Name is Ellie Mariakis. Enslaved here for 42 years."

"Not pretty." Shalnark shook his head, but his attention was still with the wonder of technology before him.

"Her grandchildren are here as well…" Lucian frowned, and suddenly he bolted out of the room and went to stand right in front of the second pod. He stared at the name embedded on the metal on the door of the pod. "Bia…That's her granddaughter. She didn't know because her memories got erased. The other one…The grandson…"

Without so much as gracing Shalnark with the information that he was going for a sudden 'errand', Lucian rushed out of the Heart of Bensalem in search for this so-called grandson, who—according to the memories he had copied from her—had very much to do with his two friends.

xXx

_And THIS is what I found…_ Lucian thought while narrowing his eyes, his expression turning into a rueful shade.

"Oy."

Knowing that it was directed to him, Lucian silently turned around to address Killua; who was still crouching over Heen's beehive-like body. Slowly and tersely, Killua glanced at Lucian with a very sceptical yet awestruck expression.

"This guy…" Killua started, but never finished his sentence. It was too virtually impossible a fact to be acknowledged.

Lucian gave a thin smile.

"Unbelievable, right? But the proof is right there before your eyes."

Gon looked at Lucian, and then to Killua, and then to Lucian again. He had no idea on what they were talking about. When he had just opened his mouth to inquire about it, however, his phone rang once more. Hurriedly he answered it without hesitation.

_[Gon, have you found Kurapika?]_

"President Netero!" Gon then switched it to loudspeaker mode. "No, but it seems that they have safely escaped. By boat, most likely." Gon added while casting Lucian a dubious look. The vampire simply nodded in confidence.

_[Then that's bad news.]_

"Bad? How come?"

_[A typhoon is coming our way. If you guys don't evacuate now, there's no guarantee on what will become of you. This fortress was protected from the elements by its electromagnetic barrier, but since now it has collapsed, there's no way of knowing how this place will handle Mother Nature's whimsical outbreak of rage.]_

All four of them looked at each other in heavy silence. Finally, Lucian let out yet another tired sigh.

"_Totuşi,__o altă__situaţie__de rahat__care le-au__s-au__ajuns__în… _(Yet another shitty situation they've gotten themselves into)" He mumbled exasperatedly as he entered the room briskly and approached the bloodied-up body of Heen. Without holding back or caring about his clean shirt, Lucian hauled Heen's trashed body in his hands and turned around to the direction of the Heart of Bensalem.

"What are you going to do with him?" Killua asked sharply.

"Not for you to find out, for sure."

"Why, you—"

"See you kids later." The vampire said with a somewhat commanding and stern voice that Killua could not help but to clamp shut his mouth. There was something in his voice that made the young Zaoldyck aware that it was wiser not to go against him. Killua had always been sharp about gauge people's abilities and he knew that Lucian was much, much more than what the vampire let on, no matter how ridiculous he often behaved.

"Lucian! If you found Kurapika, please let us know!" Gon called out to him with obviously worried tone.

"Will do," Lucian responded without even turning to address Gon directly.

Suddenly, he broke into a sprint that was characteristic of vampires—it was as if he was gliding across the metal floor without his feet even touching the ground. Along the way, Lucian then contacted his confederate who piloted the helicopter and asked him to fetch them soon as a typhoon was coming and they _absolutely _had no wish to get caught in it. When he had reached the pod where Shalnark was, he broke into a halt without even breaking a sweat after all that running.

"A typhoon is coming. Let's get out of this place." Lucian said curtly. Just like his vampire relatives, Lucian had quite an aversion to moving water like river, sea, ocean, and the likes. Encountering a typhoon on board a ship was the last thing he would ever want.

"A minute please. I'm downloading all I can get from the system. It's so wonderful and—" and Shalnark began rattling about the technology which Lucian paid no heed to.

Lucian merely gazed at the limp body in his arms. It took all self-discipline he had not to gulp down all those blood dripping from the battered body. He narrowed his eyes.

_Lucifer, you really have a great deal to explain about this one…_

_

* * *

_

Luck had turned for the worse for them. They had pursuers hot on their heels, and those pursuers were not exactly in the best of mood as the moment their boat was in range, they started shooting at them like tomorrow was Judgement's Day. Kurapika of course had singlehandedly deflected all bullets. Seeing that normal bullets did not work against them, the pursuers decided to take a more drastic measure: bazooka.

"Oh. My—" Kurapika chocked out as she saw a huge rocket flying towards them.

Determined to show them who was the boss, Kurapika flung her Dowsing Chain towards the rocket and aimed for the centre of the spherical head of the projectile. Due to the rocket's high speed and the air resistance, there was a kind of vacuum on that point and Kurapika was precisely aiming for that. Put the right pressure on that vacuum point and she was able to crush the rocket like it was some mere rock when it was still far away from their boat.

As the leftover of the rocket were falling down like shooting stars into the ocean, the men started showering them with tirades of white-hot bullets. Caught off guard, Kurapika tried to deflect all but one measly bullet managed to pass through her defence.

The bullet whizzed past her and took a hit. Despite the deafening cacophony of the gunshots that filled the entire scene, the sharp breaking sound of a glass-like material earned the full attention of both Kuroro and Kurapika. The stray bullet had hit one of Kuroro's deep-blue globular earrings. The earring shattered into thousands of splinters, the impact turning the sharp pieces into tiny shrapnel and a good number of them managed to score quite a few deep cut athwart Kuroro's pale face.

While for Kuroro the loss of one earring might account to nothing—he did not care if that earrings were a memento from Anansi or not—but for Kurapika it posed a huge significance. She still remembered Lucian's words as he told her; in Kuroro's absence, years ago, about Kuroro's earrings being his special restrainers custom-made by Anansi himself. Anansi had warned him not to tell Kuroro about that fact lest he wanted to have spiders-infested nightmares the rest of his immortal vampire life, but he thought it prudent to at least tell Kurapika about it. She could still recall his exact words as the vampire told her what Anansi had precisely told him:

_And that's why he needs the restrainers—only God above and Satan below know what he'll do when Ishtar's essence finally overwhelms him_.

"Kuro—"

"Focus." Kuroro said calmly as if nothing had happened, as if his cheek was not bleeding from the numerous tiny cuts, as if none of the splinters of his broken earrings had managed to embed themselves into his flesh.

Obeying him, Kurapika turned back her attention to the pursuers and saw another rocket flying towards them. With the intention of doing the same trick as the previous rocket, Kurapika's Dowsing Chain flew towards the rocket. This time, the result was different. Just as the Nen chain was about to touch that vacuum point of the rocket, the Nen chain itself dissipates into vapour. Shocked from the impact of her Nen suddenly being dissolved, Kurapika staggered in her stance and fell to her knees. She clutched her chest where her heart was beating irregularly underneath. It seemed that the pursuers had the good sense of gearing their rockets with anti-Nen force field, so Kurapika's Nen was dissolved in effect once it came in touch with that force field.

Despite having his back towards them, Kuroro knew roughly of what had happened. He could sense the turbulence in Kurapika's Nen and he knew that her Nen chain had failed for some reasons. Wasting no time, Kuroro left his driver post, grabbed Kurapika by her arm and Bia by her thin waist, and dived into dark water around them. Just as they were about to enter the water, the rocket collided with the boat and the vehicle exploded like a firework. Not only that the boat was moving at very high speed, they were also swept by the air pressure produced by the explosion. Consequently, they dived into the ocean with much more impact that it felt more like hitting concrete road.

It was completely dark underwater. It required someone with a nerve of steel not to have their heart skipped a beat upon seeing the abysmal darkness in the night sea. It was an infinite darkness, dense and thick. After a moment of temporary disorientation, Kuroro managed to get a bearing of his position in the sea. He looked up to the ocean surface above and was reluctant to resurface. For all he knew, the pursuers might already form a cordon surrounding them. It was likely that once he showed his head above the water surface, they would start gunning them down.

In the end, however, he decided to resurface anyway since Kurapika was trashing about; obviously panicked. In the darkness of the ocean, he could see flashes of her Scarlet Eyes casting uncontained fear to her surroundings. He then vaguely remembered that she could not swim in ocean—a trauma born from the day when she tried to swim back to the shores of the Rukuso region from the escaping boat of her tribe to get back to her family. Letting go of her arm and wrapping one arm firmly around her waist, Kuroro then began to resurface.

Kurapika gave a sharp gasp as she was finally out of the dark water and managed to breathe in the blessed cool air. Instinctively, she threw her arms around the closest object she knew she could cling on—Kuroro's neck. She even buried her face to the crook of his neck without reservation. Kuroro; surprised by this violent response, could not help but to note the trembling of her whole being. She was obviously not shaking from the cold. Kuroro felt Bia who was still limp in his other arm. It was as if he really was carrying a lifeless doll, but as he had his arm around the little girl's waist and had her petit body close to his, he could feel the faint beating of her heart. She was alive.

Kuroro cast a quick glance to his surrounding. At distant he saw the pursuers retreating at great haste. This made him frown. Why were they wasting such a golden opportunity of getting rid of two trouble-makers and reclaiming their precious 'battery'?

The answer came soon enough.

Dark shadow suddenly loomed over him, and it was of no ordinary size. Kuroro could feel its massive size, and it was approaching from behind him. Turning around, he could see a thick black wall coming towards them. The wall emerged from the water, its body rolling and stretching its height with every millisecond that passed. On top of the wall was a curving extension that seemed like it was ready to claw at them mercilessly; or to be exact, to pound them.

Kuroro only had the time strengthen his grip around Bia's and Kurapika's waist—the two of them blissfully unaware of the coming tsunami—before the nautical fist of Mother Nature pounced at them right on their heads. It was his first experience ever of being slammed by such a massive force exerted by Nature itself. They were sent tumbling further into the depth of the ocean's womb, swallowed and dragged by the invisible fingers.

Just as his consciousness was slipping away; though his grip around his two companions never slackened, he thought he heard female voices singing from distant. Then he caught something swimming towards them in a group. He thought they were a school of huge fish; sharks which were attracted by the smell of his blood, perhaps? However, just before his vision blackened completely and before he succumbed into dreamless oblivion, he saw slick arms and felt slippery hands taking hold of him and his companions. He failed to notice, however, that both his and Kurapika's identical rings were gleaming red in the darkness.

He had the vague impression that those hands never let go of them until the end.

* * *

"What. The. Hell. Is. That?" Machi articulated each word with unreserved disgust as she stared at the bloody mass in Lucian's arms.

"This? Oh, just a wonderful specimen for experiment." Lucian said with an easy shrug.

"You're sick." The female Spider muttered as she climbed aboard the helicopter that was hovering above the metal dock of the Bensalem fortress.

"_Nu-mi. Lucifer este…_ (Not me. Lucifer is)" Lucian mumbled under his breath as he hopped into the helicopter. He then turned to the pilot. "_Retour__à__ma__place__.__Faites vite__,__avant que cette affaire expire__pour de vrai_. (Return to my place. Be quick, before this thing expires for real)"

"_Roger que_. (roger that)" The pilot said easily as the helicopter started gaining altitude.

"I'd rather you be quick before we get caught in that storm. See, there's already a tsunami coming." Shalnark said light-heartedly as he gazed at the sea from inside the helicopter.

"What about Danchou?" Machi asked.

"I should be the one asking you." Shalnark said while crossing his arms. "What's your intuition telling you?"

Machi fell silent for a while.

"They'll live."

Shalnark only laughed.

"No doubt about that."

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__finally back to the weekly Monday updates, and I hope I can maintain it again -_- Anyway, this chapter is dedicated for their escape from Bensalem. I guess the title itself is already self-explanatory. Yeah, Ellie is dead and I feel bad for it. Some of you may be wondering what the fuss regarding Heen is all about, but that's for you to find out. Nyahahahaha XD If the sequence is a bit confusing, forgive me since I'm also a bit confused myself when writing this chapter. Stupid Cash got carried away with fighting he forgot all about Kurapika… _

_**Next:**__ Kurapika and Kuroro were saved by mysterious hands—which caused their identical rings that were gifts from Ishtar to glow—in the middle of a typhoon. Where would the hands take them to? Would Bia survive in their hands? _


	16. Chapter 14: Intermission

_**Disclaimer: **__I wish upon the stars…_

_**Story so far:**__ They finally managed to escape from the accursed place of Bensalem, although they had to experience Mother Nature's wrath first. Someone helped them, however, and they were found stranded on a particular shore._

_**BIG NOTE: **_"*This means the speech is spoken in Romanian but for the sake of simplifying things, I just write the whole thing in English except for a few words.*"

* * *

**Chapter 14**

_**INTERMISSION**_

* * *

There were two distinctive sounds of footsteps falling onto the stone floor. One was very faint and almost inaudible; as if the owner was gliding across the concrete, while the other one was heavy.

"Where is Meta?" The lanky dark-skinned man with light footsteps asked with quiet voice.

"I don't know. One moment I was telling him story, and the next moment he looked so agitated and the next thing I knew he was crying like tomorrow's Dooms Day." Answered the old woman with hunched back; her breathing heavy and laborious from endless running around the compound looking for the lost boy.

Anansi sighed faintly. He knew that the blond boy had a strong link with his mother, and he knew that the boy's reaction was in response to the recent incident that his parents had gotten themselves involved in. Nevertheless, this situation—a missing boy—was not something to be panicking about. This was his territory, and so he was familiar about the layout of the compound like the back of his own hands. Tracking a single child would be a child's play to him.

"Hatsubaba," Anansi said at length. "Please kindly take a few steps back."

Knowing that it was best to follow his instruction; considering _what_ he was, Hatsubaba complied without any protests. When she was roughly at a safe distance from him, Anansi closed his eyes while his arms were left limp on his sides. After a few seconds, Hatsubaba then began hearing something that sounded like flesh tearing apart. Soon enough, another five pairs of arms emerged from Anansi's back and they were spread in a fashion that was similar to the Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) Bodhisattva with thousand arms.

Those arms were (thankfully) of human forms and Hatsubaba could see fine filaments radiating from every inch of the skin. Those filaments pierced the solid walls and floors, extending indefinitely. They scanned the entire compound and sent information about whatever they passed through to Anansi. After a short moment, Anansi withdrew those filaments and his arms with a mild frown etched on his forehead.

"So?" Hatsubaba asked impatiently.

"He is in the forest. Alone." He then opened his eyes and looked at the old woman with hunched back. "Are you coming? Considering this is not Ryuusei-gai and you are not familiar with—"

"Are you nuts? Of course I'm coming; Ryuusei-gai or not!" The old woman exclaimed while storming towards the exit. "This is _his_ little boy we're talking about! I gotta make sure he's safe and sound."

Following Hatsubaba at a more leisurely pace; since his legs were so very long and with normal pace he would have overtaken the older woman easily, Anansi gazed at the witch-like Elder. They walked in silence, with only Hatsubaba's occasional huffing breaths as the only noise present. After a while, Anansi broke the silence.

"Are you going to bring Meta to see Basille?"

"I am."

"Without the parents' consent?"

"If the kid agrees, then why not?"

"I highly doubt that four-years-old is a decent age of making wise decision."

"That kid has enough sense in himself, just like his father was." Hatsubaba said while waving her hand dismissively.

_You obviously forgot that Kuroro IS psychologically unsound, and to think that you were the one who diagnosed that,_ Anansi thought grimly. _Besides, considering Meta grows up with the lack of a father figure and with a mother like Kurapika…I can't begin to imagine what kind of world exists in his mind._

* * *

Although he had been living for centuries and he was a vampire, at present he was dead tired like never before. While his face was naturally paraffin pale because of his vampire heritage, this time there were extra additions of black rings and faint eye-bags under his sleepy eyes.

Immediately after their flight from Bensalem before the place was wracked by typhoon, the helicopter had straight away headed to Muntenia—or to be specific, the Tulcea municipality under Lucian's rule—and dropped them with their little 'discovery' there. As Lucian and Shalnark took care of things in Lucian's private dwelling, Machi went with the helicopter to scour the ocean in search of the missing pair. After two whole days of searching—Lucian had no idea on how the slender young woman managed to pull it off without returning in some zombie-like appearance—Machi went back empty-handed though she still held on to her intuition that they were still alive somewhere out there. Afterwards, the helicopter went back to its owner; who was none other than Abelard Constantin. Even until Machi's return Lucian had not slept for even a wink; not to mention that the exertion on his body to do even the easiest task was double during the day.

Rotating his arms to relax the tense muscles, Lucian decided to leave the confinement of his underground laboratory and to go outside for fresh air. Shalnark was immersing himself in studying the downloaded data about the technology in Bensalem and he did not seem to need occasional fresh air. It was as if he could live there his entire life until he was done 'groping' at every inch of the new technology he managed to get his hands on—until he turned into a caveman, if needed be.

It was approaching winter in that part of the world, and winter in Muntenia was never easy to deal with. Since he was a vampire, however, he had no need to put on thick jackets and the likes to keep his body warm. If anything, he could no longer feel cold or hot inflicted by the weathers.

His mansion was even located at the hill part of Tulcea—where the air was thinner and the temperature was much lower—although it was still not the main building. The main mansion; famously called _Curtea Domnească,_ that belonged to the ancient-but-still-very-much-alive-and-kicking-and-had-no-sign-of-retiring-any-time-soon _true _Count of Wallachia was located further in the central mountain part of Muntenia, where eternal snow covered the entire place all years round. Rarely any of the humans in the whole Muntenia went there. Usually for any urgent business they would contact the smaller mansions of the 'royal family' in their respective municipalities, and then the message would be relayed to the main mansion by some ways. The Count of Wallachia rarely went out of the dark mansion, preferring the companion of solitary darkness as per the old-fashioned belief of the vampire legacy.

Lucian walked down the gravel path from his mansion towards the coastal town of Tulcea. From there he could see the view of the shores basking in the glory of falling dusk. With his keen vampire eyes, he could recognise every face of the fishermen and whoever was in the beach there as they went about dislodging the result of all-day fishing in the open ocean and sorting them out. Out of boredom, he leaned his elbows on the stone fence and scanned all faces there, reciting the respective names of the owner of those faces. So preoccupied he was by this trifle pastime that he did not realise an elderly town man running towards him up the gravel path.

"_Domnişor! Domnişor!_ (Young master! Young master!) *Big news! Big news!*"

"*Hey, old man Beni! What's the commotion is all about?*" Lucian asked as he twisted his body slightly to face the old man and leaning on the stone fence with one elbow only.

"*We found people stranded on our shore! Madness! Whoever's swimming in the sea at this season of the year is out of their freakin' mind! The sea is practically freezin'!*" The old man gesticulated with frenetic moves of his callous hands.

"*People?*" Lucian frowned.

"*Yeah! But that ain't the scariest part. At dawn in the morning about two days ago, the fishermen were struck with fear when they saw a glowing blue light at the edge of the sea; floating towards the shore, when they were about to set sail the boats. Thought it's some ghosts or sum'thin' like that, but when the braver of us took a closer look, the glowing light turned out to be people! On top of everythin', the lads who took 'em safely to the shores said that the blue light was warm. Imagine that! They said they wun't forget somethin' like that for the rest of their life.*"

Now Lucian was really interested with this so-called big news. Straigtening his posture "*Do describe them to me.*"

"*Well, they were all out cold, half-frozen, but the father—*"

"*Wait, they are a family?*" Lucian asked with a frown.

"*I guess so. I'll be damned if I claim 'em to be relatives 'cuz they look nothing alike, but from the way they were holding to each other like that, I'd say they're a family. The father kept holding on to the two others with firm arms—we could hardly peel his arms off 'em, took three of the fittest lads in our town to do that—while the mother was holding on to the father with both arms. The kid was as limp as a wooden log, though. For a split second, the lads thought she was as good as dead, but then she was breathin'!*"

"*Beni, the physical description, if you would.*" Lucian said patiently.

"*Oh! Well, The mother has real pretty golden hair, the father fine black, while the kid has this scary shade of snow for her hair. Wh, where are you going, young master?*"

Just as Beni was barely done with his description, Lucian was already half-running down the gravel path towards the town.

"*Thank you very much for the information, Beni. I think I'll pay a visit at our unexpected guests.*" Lucian said over his shoulders.

"*But, young master, do you know where they are staying now?*"

Lucian stopped dead in his track.

"*I thought so… I've known you since I wuz only a half-pint size, but you never change—always so hasty.*" Beni shook his head but there was an amused smile on his age-plagued face.

Yes, the people in that coastal town knew that the members of the royal family that governed Wallachia were all vampires and the humans had been living with that fact since their ancestors' time. How they came to accept that reality, Lucian had no idea as since the time of his birth things were already that way. Not that he cared too much about it, though. Sometimes, it was actually hard for him to settle down there. Knowing the people there intimately only to hear the next moment that they already expired out of old age. Due to that, he chose to travel the world with the excuse of finding elusive plants for his apothecary hobby.

"*We keep 'em in the hospital, an' I think the doctors have run some basic medical check-up on 'em. I dunno the results, though.*"

"*Okay, thanks!*"

Not bothering to conceal his vampire abilities, Lucian ran down the wide street of the sparsely populated suburban town with his top speed. The people only felt strong wind blowing past them without even catching a glimpse of the young vampire. Some of them with better eyesight could only hope to see fleeing shadow passing them, and some of these people recognised that shadow as the 'Young Master' if they were close enough with him.

The moment he reached the hospital, he deliberately decelerated until he was down to a normal human pace of brisk walking. The nurses of the old-established hospital in the town were infamous for their severity at trouble-makes and noise-makers—he was no exception. As such, he would refrain from being scolded by those scary senior matrons because they would not hold back against even a vampire like him. Not a chance.

Amicably greeting the staffs of the hospitals as he strode past them, Lucian headed straight for the receptionist. After asking the young woman for the ward that contained the three people that were saved from the shores and getting his answer, Lucian dashed for the said room without wasting another second like there was no tomorrow.

"LUCIFER!" He said with booming voice as he threw open the door of the private ward.

Before he could utter a single world and before Kurapika or Kuroro—who were both not in hospital gowns (much to Lucian's utter disappointment) as they had been awake for some time already and had decided to change from the ridiculous looking hospital gowns to much normal outfits—turned around to regard him (not that they planned to), the doctors and nurses who were present there gave him a piercing glare that nailed him to the floor. He literally froze there, in the pose of opening the door in his excitement.

"So, what were you saying before that idiot barged in, doctor?" Kurapika asked the doctor before her with calm voice.

"Ah, yes, yes." The white-haired old doctor nodded his great head solemnly. He was one of the scarce multi-language staffs. "The little girl here is not malnourished as we have feared at one first glance at her appearance. It is possible that she has been kept alive by continuous infusion of nutrition, but she has not been subjected to any forms of physical exercise at the very least bit." The doctor stopped reading Bia's medical record and looked at Kurapika with piercing eyes. "Is that correct?"

"No physical exercise at all for 15 full years, yes." Kurapika answered firmly.

The doctors and nurses gave her a thoroughly dubious look as if she has hit her head hard.

"If your concern is that the girl looks 13 years old while she claims that she has been physically inactive for 15 years, she is telling the truth. I can vouch for that." Kuroro said calmly. "Her physical growth has simply been stunted these past 15 years."

"But—"

"_Eu__pot garanta__pentru__că__, de asemenea!_ (I can vouch for that, too!) " Lucian exclaimed as he approached them. "I've been there, seen the place, and I can tell you that they keep this girl in a tank filled with this blue chemical. Whoa, don't ask me what the chemical is!" Lucian said while he raised his hands to stop the doctors from flooding him with corresponding questions. "It's still under investigation, okay?"

"How…" The doctor started sceptically.

"I obtained a sample of the liquid from the crime scene and brought it back to my private lab. So—"

"You were there." Kurapika said, but it was more like an accusing question rather than a statement.

"I was. Looking for the two of you because you suddenly just went out of touch and I couldn't even call your pho—"

"It's not like we could help it! Out of the blue our ship was—" Kurapika intercepted.

"Oh yes, yes, yes, I know the story. Don't start narrating to me the details because I don't think I—"

"Gentlemen and gentlewoman, please!" The doctor cried out in exasperation. The good old doctor's plea for silence did not go unheard as the two bickering people—Kuroro was enjoying the view—stopped arguing at once. "This is a hospital so I will really appreciate it if you can kindly keep your volumes DOWN."

Kuroro could not help but to snicker. It was not often to witness Kurapika getting scolded for being too loud—as for Lucian, that was already a daily basis occurrence. Kurapika glared at him fiercely, but her face was beetroot red from the embarrassment and she dared not make any more noises in the presence of the strict hospital staffs.

"So!" The doctor clasped his huge hairy hands together. "For the little girl here, I will prescribe a kind of stimulant drugs for her muscles but she will still require physical exercise to help develop the minimum muscle mass."

"I will take care of that," said Kurapika chivalrously. Kuroro raised a quizzical eyebrow at her.

"Well then, that settles about everything." The doctor said while handing the medical record to one of the nurses and made a gesture at them to go out.

The nurses went straight to the door without even so much as glancing at Kuroro. Usually, women everywhere would gossip about him and his 'handsomeness'—which Kurapika still could not understand why they had to make such a BIG deal about it—but this time round the nurses did not bother about him as if he was just another average guy. For Kuroro, it was completely refreshing. Before the old doctor exited the ward, he turned around and gazed at the sleeping little girl on the hospital bed.

"Is she," he asked tentatively while pointing at Kurapika and Kuroro in turn, "your daughter?"

"NO." The two answered in perfect unison.

"Oh. I see." The doctor nodded his head unabashedly and finally took his leave.

"I don't see the point of even asking that question. She obviously doesn't look the least bit like any of you." Lucian said as he leaned over the little girl to study her further. "_Într-adevăr__,__ea__pare__mult__mai frumoasă__, cu__părul__eimahon__._ (Really, she looks much lovelier with her mahogany hair)"

While Kurapika had not understood the meaning of that sentence, Kuroro did and at this he raised one questioning eyebrow. Kuroro then made a mental note to 'interview' the vampire later.

"You were saying that you had been _there_. What's the meaning of that?" Kurapika asked with her tone in a very interrogative fashion.

"Just as I told you before. I was looking for the two of you." Lucian answered, his grey eyes still fixed on the white-haired girl.

"Then what's with the 'sample of the chemical' and 'still under investigation' part?" Kurapika narrowed her eyes, crossed her arms, and tapped her foot against the stone floor impatiently.

"Why, _fată_ (girl), have you forgotten that chemistry is my field?" Lucian said with mild incredulity in his voice.

"Nonetheless, it seems too fishy to me."

"Oh, fishy or birdie, what's wrong with investigating new compound?"

"It doesn't concern us," Kuroro answered in a calm voice, but he also had his arms folded across his chest. "But it is of our concern to know how much you have gathered during your brief visit there."

The corner of Lucian's mouth twitched at Kuroro's declaration.

"So?" Kuroro asked leisurely as he leaned his lower back against the metal frame of the hospital bed. From his body language, Kuroro showed that he was not taking any 'no explanation'.

"For one," Lucian raised his index finger, and pointed it at the sleeping Bia, "I know that her name is Bia, and that she's kept in the second pod in the centre of that fortress, and that she has an older brother by the name of Heen and also a grandmother by the name of Ellie who happened to be—"

"WHAT?" Kurapika interjected with a cry of surprise; and a tinge of horror that underlay her tone. Even Kuroro had straightened up and his face bore a faintly hard expression upon hearing Lucian's said-in-one-breath regurgitation of facts.

"Um…She has a grandmother whose name is Ellie?" Lucian said while cringing, because the two of them looked as if they were ready to shake the answers out of him with their bare hands.

"What—how does she look like, this Ellie? No, how did you even _know_?" Kurapika asked with nervous voice. She looked like she was at loss and was thoroughly confused.

"Erh…The blood?" Lucian answered still unsurely. "I can trace people's identities by tasting a tiny drop of sample of their blood."

"So she's dead?" Kuroro asked with even voice that sounded too cold and detached to Kurapika's liking.

"Shot through the chest from behind. Confirmed."

Kurapika had to hold on to the metal frame of the bed to prevent herself from collapsing to the floor. She raised one hand and covered her face with it, but both men could still see the very faint gleam of her Scarlet Eyes from between her fingers. She was silent for quite a while, and so were the other two. Finally, when she had seemed to calm down, she spoke again with more controlled voice.

"She doesn't look like them…"

"I guess she had recessive gene. Or something like that." Lucian said with a shrug.

"B, but…" Kurapika turned around to gaze at the unconscious girl on the sterile hospital bed. As she did so, Lucian retreated by a few paces to allow her ample space by Bia's bedside. He then stood next to Kuroro.

"The blood never lies, Kurapika. Don't be in denial." Kuroro said somewhat gelidly.

"Yeah, he's right." Lucian said with light voice. "Besides, it's not like she's all alone in this wo—"

Lucian never had his chance to finish his sentence as Kuroro had stepped on his foot so hard that he instead gave a funny-sounding choked sound of pain; more like a dog whose tail had been run over by a heavy-duty truck. Lucian turned to protest loudly at Kuroro, but when he saw Kuroro's deathly shut-up-or-I'll-grind-your-foot-into-nothingness glare, he zipped his mouth shut and pressed it into a thin line. Unfortunately, Kurapika had caught what he was about to say.

"Lucian, what were you—"

"KURAPIKA!"

For the second time in the day, the door of the ward was flung open by unreserved brute force and storming in were Shalnark and Machi; who was trailing after him in a most relaxed manner. If anything, there was a triumphant light on her eyes the moment she saw their Danchou. Shalnark was holding a cell-phone high in his raised hand as if he was some Commander who was about to deliver an important message to the General from another officer. Ignoring the nurses who were hissing "Be quiet! This is a hospital!" in Romanian, Shalnark strode straight to Kurapika and shoved the cell-phone into her hand. Kurapika donned a bewildered expression and had her mouth ajar.

"What—"

"Fino." Shalnark said while pointing at the cell-phone.

_[Shalnark? Did you say Kurapika? Kurapika's there? Kurapika? Are you there? If you are, please say something! Are you alive? Kurapika? KURAPI—]_

"Yes, Fino. I am here; very much alive, thank you, and I am talking to you. Calm down, will you?" Kurapika finally answered the call rather hastily while massaging the bridge of her nose. When frantic, Fino's voice can be high-pitch to the point of ears-splitting.

In no time, Kurapika was thoroughly preoccupied in refraining Fino from screeching at her via the cell phone in her excitement while glancing furtively at Bia for fear that she might have been woken up by the entire ruckus. Machi approached the two gentlemen and addressed Kuroro while only remotely acknowledging Lucian's presence at all.

"Danchou." She said with a sliver of relief in her flat voice. Kuroro responded by a nod to her.

"How did you guys know that they are here?" Lucian asked incredulously.

"Intuition as sharp as ever, Machi?" Kuroro remarked with a thin proud smile.

Machi responded with a similar smile. However, before she could say anything, she spotted something amiss about Kuroro. She narrowed her eyes slightly as she tried to search for the missing part, when she finally found out.

"Danchou, you earring is missing." She stated with astonishment.

In reflex, Kuroro brought up a hand and touched his bare earlobe. The cool touch of the skin instead of the usual cold sensation of the earring confirmed Machi's statement. Recalling the event of the escape from Bensalem, he remembered that the earring had been shattered and several of the splinters had cut his cheek. Feeling his cheek with the tip of his fingers, there was no cuts or scars whatsoever.

"It broke." Kuroro said with a shrug. _But considering that I can't take the other off on my own, I will need a replica. I can't go out looking like this forever. _ "Lucian, do you—"

"_Este rupt?_ (it's broken)" The vampire asked with a terror-inspired voice.

Kuroro only had time to blink.

"_Este rupt? __Cum__? __Când__? __Unde__?_ (It's broken? How? When? Where?)" Lucian cried out frantically as he grabbed Kuroro's sleeves and shook him, as if trying to shake some answers out of him.

Knowing that this kind of reaction was way too exaggerated; even coming from a Lucian, Kuroro decided that it was best to talk about it in private. If Lucian was so agitated to that point, then it was a matter of significance.

"_Eu va spun doar dacă ai da drumul de mine drept această clipă._ (I will tell you only if you let go of me right this instant)" Kuroro said calmly.

Instantly; as if his hands had been burned, Lucian released Kuroro from his grip. With the same air of perfect composure, Kuroro whirled about on his heels and marched towards the exit. Lucian then hurriedly strode after him while rambling in Romanian like a madman. Machi stared at them with dumbfound expression, as she did not understand a single word that Lucian was blathering about while Kuroro seemed to perfectly understand what was going on. Shalnark; upon seeing the two of them exiting the ward and presumably the hospital as well, quickly followed after them as he thought that they were going to discuss about Bensalem. He would not want to miss it for the world.

"Hold it." Machi said sharply as she caught the scruff of Shalnark's collar and dragged him back into the ward.

"Hey!" Shalnark whined in protest.

"I don't think they are talking about issues that concern either of us. Otherwise, they'll talk about it here and now." Machi stated with good sense while casting a curious look (nonetheless) towards the departing pair.

* * *

As predicted by Anansi, both the spider incarnation and the old witch-doctor of Ryuusei-gai managed to find the blond little boy in the forest just outside the stone building. Even from a few metres away they could hear the boy sniffling in sadness. His small shoulders quavered slightly, and his from looked so frail from behind.

"Meta." Anansi called out to him softly, so as not to scare the wit out of the boy.

The boy turned around and showed them his tear-stricken, flushed face with his eyes swollen from the profuse crying. He scrambled to his feet and rushed to Anansi. He hugged Anansi's leg and stifled a cry. As gentle as he could, Anansi bent down and tried to peel off the boy's arms from around his leg. As he did so, his platinum gold hair swayed and formed a golden curtain at one side. Hatsubaba observed them from distant, curious on how the man would handle such a little child.

"Is it about your parents that you are worried about?" Anansi asked again.

Meta nodded his head vigorously.

"T, the, they—hic—w, would be—hic—alright?" Meta asked; his expression pitiful and heart-wrenching.

"Do you think your parents are weak?"

The boy shook his head vehemently.

"Right. There you go. You know they are strong, so surely they will be alright." Anansi patted the mop of his golden hair. Meta ducked his head but did not shun away from Anansi's touch.

"But I'm scared…"

Anansi frowned slightly at this. Usually, Ishtar would have gone to lengths to keep the boy at peace and eradicated all sort of fear from him. This time, it seemed that she had practically done nothing at all. Not even to comfort him. Knowing that she might be up to something else, Anansi kept that idea to himself.

"It's okay to be scared. That's just normal, hum?" Anansi squatted in front of Meta and studied his features.

At one glance he was a duplicate of Kurapika, but when he looked at those eyes, he knew that the boy had inherited his father's eyes. Even the way he stared was similar as Kuroro's. He had met Kuroro for the first time when the latter was only ten-years-old, and right now Meta was only four-years-old. He wondered if Meta would behave like Kuroro or not when he reached ten-years-old. It was unlikely; Anansi hastily decided, since they were raised in different environments, so surely they would grow up to be completely different individuals.

"I wish you'll look more like your father when you are older." Anansi absentmindedly murmured. He had not intended to say it to Meta and more to himself, but Meta heard him and the boy released an unreserved grin at this.

"I wish so too!" He chirped happily, and for a moment his sadness and anxiety over his parents' wellbeing seemed to be forgotten.

Seeing how beaming and adorable Meta's countenance was, Anansi could not help but to smiled his doting-parent-mode smile and pressed his cheek against Meta's chubby one.

"Aw, aren't you soooo cute~~" He cooed while rubbing his cheek against the little boy's.

Meta gave a squeal of delight at being treated like that. Anansi's heart felt like melting when the boy responded so positively, while he recalled that a ten-years-old Kuroro had tried to bite off his cheek when he tried to do the same to that somber boy. He wondered how father and son could be so different. After a while, Anansi detached his cheek from Meta's, leaned forward and touched Meta's forehead with his.

"Hatsubaba was telling you stories, right?"

At this, Meta's eyes lit up.

"Right!" He looked around and beamed when he spotted the said old woman standing not too far away from them. "Grandma!"

Anansi cocked an eye and threw a mocking glace at Hatsubaba, though the withered-yet-sturdy old woman took it all unabashedly.

"Now who's the guilty one?" He sneered without malice in his voice.

Hatsubaba gave a scoffing snort.

"He is. He refuses to call me by my name." When she turned to Meta—who was already hugging her stubby, hunched form—her expression softened significantly and she almost looked genuinely grandmotherly. "Now where were we?" She asked in almost a coo.

"You were telling me on how Papa Lucian burned daddy's eyebrows in a test."

"Ah yes. That notorious fiasco of a failed chemical experimentation, and that's why your father's eyebrows are short." Hatsubaba chuckled in glee as she bobbed her head in amusement at the recollection of the accident.

Anansi, however, did not look all too happy—amused as he was, though—upon knowing what kind of stories that Hatsubaba had been telling the innocent-yet-not-so-innocent little boy.

"Kuroro won't be delighted to know this."

"As if I care." Hatsubaba sniffed uncaringly.

She took Meta's small hand in her wrinkled one and ushered him back into the weathered building. All the way she continued with her amusing little stories and Meta's giggles could be heard ringing pleasantly. Anansi, however, was in a dilemma on how to prevent a certain almost-inevitable commotion from happening in the near future when a certain raven-haired obsidian-eyed young man learned of the fact that Hatsubaba had shamelessly narrated to his son the embarrassing stories of his youth—ones that were potential to be materials for ultimate blackmailing.

Little did he know that Hatsubaba had told the same stories to Kurapika years back in Ryuusei-gai.

* * *

Once outside, the human and the non-human kept brisk-walking until they were standing on a certain lone stone bridge. The streets were generally deserted at that hour of time, while only the beaches were bustling with activities as fishermen, fishmongers, and housewives immersed themselves in all sort of piscine affairs. The street lamps—ones that looked so antiquated that Kuroro often wondered why they had not gone into a museum yet—glowed serenely at various points in the towns; providing paltry yet decent lighting to the roads and lanes.

Kuroro stopped sauntering and turned to regard Lucian with a questioning stare.

"Why are you so excitable about my missing earring?" He asked softly, but there was an underlying demanding tone in his words.

"Um… Well…" Lucian deliberately avoided eye-contact with him. Despite Kuroro not inheriting Ishtar's True Vision—in which she was able to see through all kind of truth as if they were bared before her—(praise the Lord for that), Lucian still felt like this particular human's stare could force him to spill everything out. "You…simply look strange without it."

"Oh, really?"

Lucian twitched. He could swear that he detected venom dripping in that seemingly innocent question.

"Then what's with that tirade of 'How? When? Where?' in your earlier outburst in the hospital? Hm?" Kuroro took several quick steps that he was standing in front of the taller man in no time. "Lucian. You are hiding something."

"Why? Isn't it normal for people to have their own tiny little secrets?" Lucian tried to act deviant this time.

"Oh, sure it is." Kuroro pulled a smile that sent shiver down the vampire's back. "However, this 'tiny little secret' of yours seems to concern _me_ and so I think it does not, in effect, qualify to be a secret anymore in _my _presence."

"So that's how you want to play it? No secrets between us?" Lucian retorted.

"That is not my point. I have secrets that I do not wish to share with anyone else, including _you_."

"Ouch. That hurts." Lucian remarked while putting a very pained expression on his wan face and planted his hand on his chest above his heart as if Kuroro's words had stabbed it mercilessly.

"Lucian. You are trying my patience." Kuroro said, and his tone was already the embodiment of his thinning patience.

"The thing is, _prietenul meu_ (my friend), that secret is not mine to begin with. I was merely entrusted with it by someone else and it really is not my right to disclose it to you. Please understand my position here." Lucian pleaded.

_I don't want to be plagued by itsy-bitsy-spidery nightmares for the rest of my life…_He secretly added in his heart.

Kuroro narrowed his eyes into dangerous slits but he ceased from pressing the information out of the vampire. Not only that he did understand Lucian's position, he also acknowledged that there were secrets that some people would rather carry with them to their deaths than to divulge them. Knowing that he would not want people to be prying on such secrets of his, he let go of Lucian. Nonetheless, he had the rough idea on who was behind it.

_This so-called 'secret' has something to do with my earring. Although Lucian is pretty easy to threaten, so far I know that he only yields to certain people that he either think as a close friend or as his superior. Which means, eliminating others that have nothing to do with earrings and those that are unlikely to be able to impose any threats on him, that will only leave me with…_

Kuroro narrowed his eyes as he was getting to the end of his conclusion. He was not too happy with the conclusion itself.

_Anansi. I should have known…_

"Fine. I will drop this case as it is for now." Kuroro finally relented as he shrugged his shoulders.

"_Oh, Iisuse__dulce__,__vă mulţumescfoarte mult__!_(Oh, sweet Jesus, thank you so much)" Lucian exclaimed as he threw his hands heavenwards as if he had earned salvation.

"And quit being so overly dramatic." Kuroro said dryly.

"You are no fun!" Lucian huffed. "Oh, here comes Shalnark. What a nice timing."

Kuroro turned to the direction of Lucian's line of sight and indeed he spotted the younger Spider sauntering towards them. The two men waited until Shalnark had reached their place, but Shalnark stopped a few metres shy from them.

"Um, are you finished talking?"

"Yes." Kuroro responded curtly as he gave one piercing sideways glance at Lucian, who winced when he felt that sharp glare.

"Good. Then can we proceed with that issue?" Shalnark asked as he turned to Lucian.

Kuroro raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, yes, yes. Of course. It's about time that _he_ gives us some good explanation of what happened in that wretched place." This time, it was Lucian who glared at Kuroro.

"On which particular issue?" Kuroro asked composedly.

"About this man who's supposed to be dead in your hands but apparently he isn't." Lucian said pointedly.

Kuroro did not even bother to conceal a smirk—one that an outsider might perceive as bordering to being sinister.

"Then I assume you are talking about a man by the name Heen."

* * *

It was a hospital ward, and there was a sickly little girl sleeping there. However, it seemed that the people on the other side of the phone line were not aware of it as they were making such a loud ruckus that it did not require Kurapika to turn the call into loudspeaker mode to allow Machi to hear every single word that the speakers were screaming about. Kurapika herself was already turned into a silent listener of whatever loud conversation was going on in Prancing Pony Inn vis-à-vis the phone call.

_[Kurapika, Una has come back and she told me—]_

_[Kurapika! Oh my Lord! You are safe?]_ Came the screeching voice of Fino's mother. She could be very highly-strung when situation required it.

_[Hey lass! It's good to hear you alright. What about Meta?]_ Asked Fino's father in his more docile voice.

_[Right! Meta! Where's Meta? I heard he's missing? Is he alright? He's not dead, is he?]_ Screamed Fino's mother.

"I—" Kurapika started, but never had the chance to complete her sentence.

_[Mom! Don't say such ominous things! Kurapika's already worried sick and you are only making things worse! Sheesh!]_ Said Fino irritably.

Oh, Kurapika knew it very well that Fino's parents were treating Meta as if he was their own grandson. Not that she minded it, but sometimes—if not most of the time—they could be overprotective of the boy. One time when Meta was down with a common light fever, they acted as if that day was Judgement Day.

_[Well, you can't blame your mother, Fino. It's your own fault, after all.]_

_[My fault? What do I have to do with this?]_

_[It's because you aren't getting married and you aren't having any children! I want to hold babies again! I want grandchildren!]_

_[Not this crap again. If you want to hold babies that badly, go and borrow our neighbour's babies! There are plenty of them around the town.]_

_[Why aren't you married with Shalnark already? Oh I can't wait anymore! Go and marry him!]_

_[MOM! You expect me to go and propose to him? Are you raving mad?]_

_[Maybe he's just shy.]_

_[What is there to be shy about? He's already like a family to us!]_

_[How am I supposed to know?]_

_[I WANT GRANDCHILDREN!]_

_[MOM!]_

Machi was already feeling tense from hearing such conversation. Kurapika noticed the female Spider's look of astonishment and sent her an unbelievable-isn't-it kind of look. After waiting for a while until that tempestuous family had simmered down and Kurapika could finally talk with them in peace, Kurapika reassured them that everything was alright and they would contact them as soon as they found Meta. When she finally hung up, Kurapika heaved a tired sigh.

"Are they always like that?" Machi, despite herself, asked with incredulous voice.

"You bet." Kurapika shook her head.

Machi did not reply. Instead, in her head she was mulling over why Shalnark had not even proposed to that Fino girl yet. She had met that town girl before and Machi admitted that she had a very likable personality. If anything, all the Spiders seemed to like her to a certain degree. Machi narrowed her eyes but there was a sadistic smile gracing her thin lips. Regardless of Shalnark's reasons, Machi was only concerned with the fact that now she had a very good material to blackmail a certain Spider fellow.

Just suddenly, there was a twitch coming from the sleeping Bia. All attention was instantly averted towards the girl, and Kurapika rushed to her bedside and observed her intently. When Bia fluttered open her eyes, Kurapika gave a cry of joy and relief. Knowing that the interesting part had passed and coupled with the fact that she was least interested with this (perhaps) coming drama, Machi silently walked towards the door. However, she stopped when she was at the doorstep.

"Kurapika."

The said young woman looked up with a look of astonishment on her face. Machi very rarely called her by name.

"They are looking for Meta as well." Machi said in reference to the Spiders. She did not know why, but she simply felt compelled on telling Kurapika that. "Though they are betting on who's going to find Meta first."

She had genuinely expected the Kuruta to burst into a fit of rage upon knowing that the Spiders were betting at her misfortune and on Meta's fate no less, but how surprised Machi was to heard Kurapika muttering words of gratitude to her.

"Regardless, thank you."

If only Machi had been looking at Kurapika, she would have caught the look of sincere thankfulness on her visage. Deciding coldly that she had done her part, Machi departed from the room and closed the door behind her with a soft click.

After Machi had gone, Kurapika turned to Bia. She was already looking at her with her big eyes that were the colour of bright hazel. It was several hues brighter than her brother's that they looked almost blazing in contrast with her dark yet pale skin. There was fearful bewilderment in her eyes, but as Kurapika approached her slowly and touched her gently, the fear dissipated as if it had just vaporised.

"Hello, Bia. How are you feeling?" Kurapika asked with soft voice. She knew that if confronted with too loud a voice, Bia might get scared witless.

Bia simply looked at her with stoic face. There was no expression whatsoever, and even her eyes had turned into a calm shade that radiated no joy, no sorrow, no anger—nothing. When the fear had departed, Kurapika found herself staring into a pair of emotionless hazel glass-like orbs. Kurapika tried prompting her to show emotions by asking her questions, but Bia gave no answers and showed no reactions whatsoever; it made the Kuruta felt like she was talking to a life-size doll. Then, after a few failed attempts, a realization dawned at Kurapika.

After all those years of isolation from the world, Bia had been rendered incommunicado.

* * *

Lucian's lab was dark and cold, but the atmosphere was perfectly sterile. Taking a sparse glance at the lab, Kuroro wondered if Lucian's lab had perhaps the most advanced and flawless equipments. There were apparatuses of unknown uses to him, and not to mention the colourful liquids—bright and dull—that they contained. There were bottles containing materials and samples of dubious safety, sets of beakers and test-tubes joined together with glass pipes that formed a gigantic complex, and many other curiosities.

Despite his inquisitiveness, Kuroro refrained himself from asking a single question regarding the surrounding because he knew that once prompted, Lucian could talk the night away; rambling about his experiments and the likes. Instead, he followed the vampire in silence with Shalnark walking behind him. The younger Spider filled him in with whatever they were doing in Bensalem two days ago, and whatever findings they had managed to uncover there.

"The Heart's role is solely to supply power to the electromagnetic barrier, and so even when the barrier system was disengaged the place didn't collapse. In the end, the whole ship sank when hit head-on by the typhoon that night. The technology they used isn't actually that novel, because the basic logic used for the programs is just as common as in any high-tech place we can find all around the place. The security system, the maintenance system, the operating system; they are all nothing new. What intrigues me, however, is the Reprogamming process that they have. I'm still studying it, but so far I can come with a rough idea that it's similar to normal brainwashing but it extends further. I'll say that it goes as far as affecting not only the brain system but also the psyche of the subjects."

As Shalnark continued explaining in a very cohesive manner, Kuroro said nothing at all. Although Kuroro showed no response, Shalnark knew that he was listening. They stopped when they reached a certain door with no control panel, no handles—only a slab of metal door. Lucian then said something in a language that was completely alien to Kuroros' ears; he deduced that it might be some ancient Romanian language that was passed down in the family or something like that. The door budged and, instead of swishing open, it turned transparent as the matter that constituted the metal door seemed to have changed into something altogether different.

"Cool, huh? This place has even more sophisticated technology than that ship. Too bad Lucian doesn't allow me to study it."

"It's a family secret. My father will have my head if I allow someone outside our family to learn it." Lucian said with laughing voice as if it was a joke, though his eyes were not joking at all.

There were other things in the room that was beyond that strange door, but the most attention-seeking object in the whole spacious black room was the gigantic tank that was standing at the furthest end of the room, attached to the wall. Walking past Lucian, Kuroro approached the tank while ignoring everything else. He stopped when he was standing right in front of the tank and found himself staring at a very familiar face.

Inside the tank was a man whose head was perfectly intact yet his body was in shambles. His right arm and his left leg were missing, while there were patches here and there all over his torso. His right thigh had a huge patch over it, though in all it was quite intact. The curly hair was surprisingly still the same dark shade of mahogany, and while the complexion was considerably pale, the dark-olive shade of the skin was still apparent. He was connected to numerous cords, and the sight reminded Kuroro of Bia in her confinement tank in Bensalem. For him, however, there was an addition of a mask being strapped to his mouth.

"You have done well in fetching him and preserving him." Kuroro said as he glanced to Lucian over his shoulder.

"_Tu om bolnav, tu! _(You sick man, you)" Lucian scoffed. "What do you intend to do with him?"

"Why did you rescue him?"

"Do I know?" Lucian remarked cryptically. "I just thought that there had to be a reason why you decided to spare his pitiful life when he had gone as far as devising a plan to blind you with rage and hopefully killed him in the process. It was an elaborate trick on his part, and it wasn't so nice of him to do that to Kurapika." Lucian paused and clucked his tone in annoyance upon remembering the memories he had extracted from Heen's blood. "Nevertheless, I know that you have a plan for him."

Kuroro turned around so that he fully faced the irked vampire; whom he graced with a thoroughly enigmatic smile. Lucian bit the inside of his mouth as he refrained himself from condemning his human friend for doing such a grotesque business. Before either of them could say anything, Shalnark's cry of surprise broke the tension.

"He's waking up!"

And Shalnark was correct. The machine that was monitoring Heen's consciousness suddenly beeped erratically, but it soon settled down into a more stable pace. Kuroro turned to the tank and looked up, only to find him being stared down by a pair of contemptuous hazel eyes. The muscles around his mouth seemed to twitch, and Lucian noticed this.

"Turn on the speaker!" Lucian said to himself as he hurried to the control panel and pressed a button.

There was a buzz that indicated the speaker coming to life, and a low voice spoke from it.

_[Aren't you a cruel bastard? I thought I asked you to kill me, and I thought you did kill me.]_

"I'm merely giving you a second chance."

"He's being super generous, you know." Lucian informed him. "Though I know that the reason is because he has foreseen your usefulness in the near future, if he lets you live." The vampire added in a low whisper while throwing a sarcastic glance at the conniving raven-haired man standing next to him.

"True enough." Kuroro shrugged casually since the negative implication of Lucian's words meant nothing to him.

_[So you want to exploit me now?]_

"I'd rather you use the term 'giving an opportunity'." Kuroro said with a knowing smile.

_Yeah right. Act all sophisticated and suave like you always do,_ Lucian thought while rolling his eyes.

_[What opportunity?]_ Heen asked with a tired yet resigned sigh. _[I don't wish for one.]_

"We have her here. Safe and sound." Kuroro said, though the content seemed disjointed from his previous statements. "Your sister, that is."

A new life sprang from Heen's dull eyes. He stared at Kuroro with a plain shocked look, until he finally broke into a smile of sheer joy that bordered salvation. Lucian then knew that Kuroro was announcing about Bia for the sake of gaining Heen's attention. The devil…

"As for your earlier question about opportunity," Kuroro resumed with a thin smile, "have you heard of the Genei Ryodan?"

* * *

Leorio paced around in a circle impatiently, and Gon wondered why the carpet had not formed a depression yet from Leorio's incessant walking. He then threw a glance at his silver-haired best friend; Killua was lounging on the sofa with his cell phone pressed against his ears. Earlier on they had decided to contact Shalnark but the operator said that the line was busy—they had no idea that Fino was on the line with Shalnark at that exact time—and so they tried asking President Netero if he had heard any news regarding their blonde friend or not.

"Ah, can I talk with President Netero?" Killua asked lazily once the call was connected with the secretary's desk. He waited for a while, before Killua cried out, "Hey, old geezer! Any news about Kurapika?"

"Killua!" Both Gon and Leorio shouted at him for his impudence at the highly esteemed leader of the Hunters Association. Killua pursed his lips at them, but did not bother to correct himself.

_[Oh, nice timing, you guys. In fact, we've just managed to trace Kurapika's whereabouts. I'm just about to send Cash to her place. Do you want to come along?]_

Killua turned to look at his two other friends, and they were nodding their heads vigorously with utmost enthusiasm.

"Sure thing. When are we going, then?"

_[Hm…What about tomorrow morning? The blimp will fetch you then. Where are you staying right now?]_

Killua gave the president the address of the current hotel they were staying in, and Netero in turn instructed them to stand on the roof of the highest building in that area. That way they would not have to waste time for landing and taking off.

"We are going to see Kurapika again! At last!" Gon cried out in excitement. "And Cash is coming, too! This is going to be fun!"

"I don't really share your happiness, Gon." Killua said deadpan, though he was still grinning at the relieving thought of his friend being alive and sound.

"Why?" Gon blinked in confusion.

Leorio gave a sharp gasp as he threw a fist at his own open palm.

"Gawsh! CASH is coming!"

"What's wrong with that? Why?"

"Listen, Gon." Killua put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "You do know that Cash likes Kurapika, correct?"

Gon nodded.

"And you do know that Kurapika is currently with Kuroro Lucifer, correct?"

Gon nodded again.

"And can you imagine what will happen when those two meet?"

Leorio shuddered at the thought, but Gon only blinked in confusion. Killua sighed.

"I reckon they'll try to kill each other off."

"No way!" Gon cried out disbelievingly.

"Why not? Kuroro Lucifer is a jealous person, I'd wager." Killua shrugged.

"Is he?" Gon turned to Leorio.

"Don't ask me, Gon. I'm not his buddy."

"But maybe you're right." Killua grinned broadly upon imagining the kind of scene he would be witnessing. "This will definitely be fun."

* * *

The sounds of the ocean waves breaking against the rocky wall of the hills near the shores were almost like calming rhythms in the dead of the night. A lone figure stood by the shoreline, slightly further inland due to his natural aversion to moving body of water. His silky black hair billowed wildly as the strong night wind danced around him. Lucian raised his fingers to his mouth and made a high-pitch whistle that almost sounded like a hawk's cry. The whistling sound travelled far across the ocean and it only stopped as he ceased whistling himself.

Lucian waited patiently for a few good minutes, until finally there was a dark mass emerging from the ocean water. The figure grew in size rapidly and when it had fully materialised, it started advancing towards Lucian. The figure walked on the water surface, but the water did not seem disturbed by the steps it had taken. When the figure was close to the shore, the dim light from the town illuminated it and Lucian could see its true form.

The figure was not of one but instead two beings. It was of a woman of striking beautiful who was sitting on top of a horse. The woman had turquoise wavy hair and was wearing a green tunic, with ornaments made of oceanic organisms decorating her. Her skin was pale to the point of being bluish. The horse; lean and beautiful in its own right, had long mane of the same shade as the woman's hair, and its skin was of aqua colour.

_Have you called upon us, young count?_ The woman asked with wispy voice.

"I have. I just want to make a few inquires to you." Lucian said amiably with a gentlemanly smile. "But first of all, may I have the honour of knowing the name with which you go by?"

_I am known as Vila of the __Vâlva Apei, and this is my loyal companion,_ the woman said while stroking the horse's surprisingly dry mane. _As for your inquiries,_ the woman turned back to Lucian and smiled coyly, _d__o they happen to have something to do with the three we rescued from the sea a few days ago?_

"You beat me, fair maiden. Yes, it is regarding them. May I ask, if it doesn't offend you, as for why you have chosen to save them? I understand that you are under absolutely no obligation to save humans from drowning in the ocean." Lucian said, and added in his mind: _if anything, you usually make them drown by dragging them into the sea…_

_Well, simply put I have a request from my distant cousin over there in the forest of Rhutenia's desert. She asked me to help them should they get into troubles in my territory here. Rusalka has always been such a sweet child, so I comply with her wish. It is an easy one, after all. Though it ss such a pity to lose such a rare good-looking man…_ The graceful Vâlva Apei said with dreamy look on her translucent face.

"What about the glowing blue light?"

_Blue light?_ Vila frowned. _I have no idea on what you are talking ab—Ah…I see. That was not my kin's doing. There is this genie—an Ifrit, I say—that sticks with them although I wonder why he does that._

_That would be Deifri, _Lucian though. "And?"

_Well, I suppose he was the one who kept them warm from the freezing weather, hence your 'glowing blue light',_ Vila said with a shrug. _Any other things you wish to clarify?_

"I think not. Thank you so much for sparing your time, my lady. I bade you a good night." Lucian bowed like a true debonair.

_And I you, young lord._ Vila bowed slightly as a courtesy.

With those parting words, Vila's horse gave a startling high-pitch neigh and it made a sharp turn on its rear legs. The horse then dashed towards the open ocean with its passenger on its back, and Lucian witnessed it as the figure seemed to melt into the body of water beneath it.

Lucian was soon lost in his own thoughts regarding of the circumstances that were weaving its webs around him and his life. Somehow, his life was getting more complicated, and for some reasons he kept getting himself involved in situations that were not exactly his to meddle with. After a while, he shook his head as one thought crossed his mind.

_Lucifer and his troubles…_

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Another chapter! Well, 'Intermission' refers to a break and here it points to the possibility of Kurapika and Kuroro, plus Bia now, to spend more time in Lucian's home before resuming with their journey. Oh gawd, I can't wait to write the chapter when Cash is meeting with Kuroro Lucifer for the first time! What should I write about, hm hm? *evil smirk*_

_Maybe here Kuroro really seems like a jerk and bastard, for doing such thing to Heen. Then again, he has his own agenda and it's not like Kuroro to act all kindly and generous without considering his own (and his group's) interest, no?_

_And Heen is NOT dead! Wee! XD "Have you heard of the Genei Ryodan?" Hum, hum, very suggestive, indeed?_

_**Next: **__So four certain Hunters were going to pay a visit to Muntenia. How would it turn out to be? It would definitely be fun, but in Killua's or Gon's definition? Now that it was discovered that Bia was unable to express any emotions and coupled with her temporary physical disabilities, how would the pair take care of things? Would Heen also accept Kuroro's offer for a new opportunity in life? _


	17. Chapter 15: Visit

_**Disclaimer: **__I wish upon the stars…_

_**Story so far:**__ It seemed that the duo would have to spend some time in Lucian's domain. At the same time, a group of familiar people were on their way to visit Kurapika. How would the four old friends since Hunters Exam spend their reunion, considering there were several other 'extras'?_

_**NOTE: **_"*This indicates speech said in Romanian, since I'm too lazy to translate the whole thing into Romanian, for the fear that the long sentences may get translated wrongly since Google Translator isn't very accurate, after all.*"

* * *

**Chapter 15**

_**VISIT**_

* * *

"Lucian." Shalnark asked with very serious face. "Since when is your hair curly?"

"Since half an hour ago." Lucian snarled grouchily. Kuroro snickered at this reaction, causing Lucian to glare at him—which was not something he often did. He had his reasons though; his hair was his pride and now it was singed to the point of being curly at the ends. "This is YOUR fault."

"It's hardly entirely mine." Kuroro shrugged off the accusation.

"Not entirely but you are still part of it!"

"Unintentionally. I didn't even have the knowledge of it, so I can't be accused of being the guilty one."

"STILL!" Lucian threw his arms heavenwards in boundless exasperation.

Shalnark thought it wise to keep a ten-metre safe distance from the livid vampire, in case he decided to vent out his anger on him by sucking him dry. He inched closer to Kuroro and asked in low whisper.

"May I know what happened?"

Kuroro chuckled amusedly at the memory.

"Bia was throwing tantrums."

"How come?"

"This morning Lucian came to inject some muscle-stimulants for her, to help remedy her muscle-weakness." He started while smothering his gleeful smile.

The next morning after Lucian discovered them in the hospital, he had arranged for them to be transferred to his mansion. Kuroro and Kurapika were virtually fully recovered, but Bia was still in need of medical attention. Her medical attention included: periodical injection of muscle-stimulants drugs to hasten her muscles recovery, and physical exercise to strengthen her underdeveloped muscles and to accustom her to being active again. Lucian volunteered to do the former, while Kurapika opted to do the latter. Kuroro was, unfortunately, far from being interested to do anything regarding the poor little girl. If anything, he was worried that the white-haired girl would get too attached with Kurapika and later on would insist on following her around. That would only mean more troubles, in his perspective. He had silently wished Kurapika would delegate the task to one of the nurses, but knowing her temper and her sentimentalism, he knew that she would refuse.

"I planned on coming down here earlier and Kurapika planned on preparing for Bia's bath," Kuroro continued, "but when I was closing the door behind me and Kurapika was inside the bathroom—in which we were both out of Bia's range of view—her Nen exploded."

Shalnark grimaced. He knew how powerful Bia was after looking through the file he had downloaded from Bensalem, and he knew from Lucian's story—extracted from Ellie's blood—that Bia was already a Nen-user. Even without Kuroro elaborating further on what had actually occurred in that room—which was most probably wasted to nothing by now—Shalnark understood what kind of tragedy had befallen the unfortunate vampire.

_Huh? Wait a minute…_

"Danchou? Did you say when you _both_ were out of her range of view?" Shalnark asked with dubious look at Kuroro.

"Kurapika was inside the bathroom before I went out of the room, and Bia didn't throw tantrums." Kuroro answered.

"I thought she's attached to Kurapika only? So then…" Shalnark drawled, "…it means she's attached to you too, Danchou?"

"I hope not." Was Kuroro's curt answer, and his tone reflected his clear dislike towards that notion.

"Aww, c'mon Danchou." Shalnark put on a very mischievous grin. "Just treat it as if you have a daughter this time rou—"

The younger Spider could not finish his sentence because Kuroro shot him a very silently-murderous glare of one-more-word-and-I-will-make-you-regret-for-being-so-smart-mouthed. It was a very rare gesture, considering it coming from Kuroro Lucifer who was renowned for his coolness and ever-present composure. Shalnark gulped hard and wisely said nothing more on that topic.

They proceeded walking down to the chamber at the lowest part of Lucian's basement laboratory—the one that housed Heen. Lucian entered the access code; by muttering at the voice-recognition system so grouchily that Shalnark wondered how the system ever managed to understand a single word that escaped the vampire's virtually-unmoving lips. Once the metal door had been transmuted, they entered the private chamber and found Heen still asleep inside the tank. Without delay, Shalnark went to perch on his post and began 'playing' with his 'toys'. Holographic screens shot up in the air to display charts and figures. With arms crossed, Lucian glanced at the screens rather sullenly.

"Not bad. If we keep up things this way, he'll fully recover in less than a week." The vampire declared.

"What about the missing limbs?" Kuroro asked dispassionately.

"I'm ordering custom-made ones from my acquaintance who's specialised in cyborgs. I understand that you value secrecy and so you probably won't like it to have someone meddles with your precious Spider candidate—"

"No. Let him know who he's supposed to go to for his maintenance. Just make sure that this friend of yours knows how to hold his tongue."

"Phooey! Botheration. I'll just introduce him to you and you take care of that yourself." Lucian snorted while waving a dismissive hand.

"And one more thing. I'll have Machi handles the attachment of the artificial limbs. Her Nen threads are far stronger than anything else."

Lucian glared with indignation at Kuroro.

"You sure are asking a lot, aren't you? This isn't coming free-of-charge, mind you."

"I am aware of that. Just deduct the fee from my bank account. The usual one." Kuroro smiled knowingly at him.

"Yessir, yessir." Lucian muttered while shrugging noncommittally.

All the while, Shalnark was listening to their conversation. It sounded so casual as if they were talking about weathers and politics, and Shalnark was not blind to see how comfortable his Danchou was around the vampire. He had heard that Kuroro had met Lucian shortly after they left Ryuusei-gai, and had spent most of his time with the non-human creature during the gang's break. He was dying to know how their first meeting was, and so were the other Spiders, but none of them dared to ask their Danchou about it. They had caught the signal that the topic was off-limit—which led Shalnark to suspect that it was probably of embarrassing incidents, one way or another.

"By the by, Lucifer." Lucian said at length. "What are you planning to do now?"

Kuroro covered his mouth with his hand in his trademark thinking gesture. He stared at Heen's tank for a while, indicating that his consideration involved Heen. Lucian waited patiently, while inside he was actually fidgeting restlessly.

"We'll be going to Ryuusei-gai as soon as possible. I have my doubts that Anansi and Meta will be there, but there's something I need to do over there. I suppose then it'll only be a brief visit."

Lucian did not know whether he ought to feel relieved or not. For one, he had yet to consult Anansi about Kuroro's broken restrainer. As long as he had not notified the spider incarnation and had not received any replies, he would not feel secure to let Kuroro Lucifer out of his eyesight. It was good that the man would not be too long in Ryuusei-gai, and he would probably come back to Tulcea to check Heen's recovery progress. Besides, there was an issue about Bia as well that would constrict their movement since Kurapika had been so obnoxiously stubborn about that little girl's condition.

Then again, he still had to make sure…

"What about Bia then?" He asked with the most neutral voice he could muster.

Kuroro was silent for a while. When he opened his mouth to give an answer, suddenly Shalnark's cell phone rang. Muttering apology at them for the rude intervention, he quickly answered it.

"Hel—"

Shalnark could not finish his words as the caller had bombarded him with words and sentences. Unlike other commonly manufactured phones, Shalnark's one was custom-made and it was made so that the conversation could not leak to others around him unless he put it on loudspeaker mode. As such, Kuroro and Lucian could only observe Shalnark's change of expressions to get the gist of what the conversation was all about. Shalnark's expression rapidly changed from being neutral, to being surprised, and finally to being thoroughly at loss of words.

"Uh…Okay. Bye." He said at last, and lowered his cell phone.

"Who was it?" Lucian asked inquisitively.

"Danchou…" Shalnark turned slowly to face the said man. Kuroro raised an eyebrow—he wondered if Shalnark was about to break a terrible news.

"Is tomorrow the end of the world?" Lucian said while rolling his eyes impatiently.

"Gon and others are coming here…" Shalnark grimaced, ignoring Lucian's sarcastic remark.

Kuroro shook his head in amusement at his own Spider's antic. Was that supposed to be bad news?

"When?"

"Now."

Just as the word escaped Shalnark's mouth, there was an announcement by the guards that there was a blimp bearing an unknown logo landing in their territory.

* * *

Kurapika was walking down the beach with Bia in her arms. Despite Bia's current disability to walk on her own two feet, Kurapika thought it necessary for her to breathe in fresh outdoor air. At the same time she would slowly start her physical exercise bit by bit in different terrains. She kept talking to the little girl although she showed no response. She could only rely to Bia's eyes movement to see if the girl was following her instructions or not.

Just suddenly, there was loud commotion coming from the main streets. People in the beach started making their way to the heart of the commotion. The municipality being a small coastal town at the edge of Muntenia, there was hardly anything exciting and new all around the year. As such, when there was anything new that came to their humble town, the population tended to make a huge deal of it. In no time, the beach was completely deserted, leaving only Kurapika and Bia there.

Bia showed no sign of being interested in the affair as she simply snuggled closer to Kurapika's chest. The latter, however, could not help but to get her curiosity teased by the sudden excitement.

"Let's go there, shall we?" Kurapika told the girl and walked towards the stone wall that separated the grassy part of the town with the beach.

She had just been walking up the stone steps when suddenly she heard loud cries of joy that sounded so familiar to her ears. She looked up and was thoroughly surprised to see spiky black hair, spiky silver hair, and stump of black hair rushing towards him with excessive energy.

"KURAPIKAAAA!"

The first one to reach her was, surprisingly (or maybe not), Leorio. He spread his arms wide like a mother ready to embrace her son. Gon and Killua followed closely behind him, both sporting a look of immense relief and joy at seeing her perfectly fine.

"You guys—" Kurapika started but her sentence ended on a yelp because Leorio seemed ready to throw himself at her.

"Kurapi—GYAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The reason for Leorio's scream of agony was because suddenly he felt like he was electrocuted by some kind of giga-voltages of electricity. There was even sparks of electricity coming off his body as he froze in a very odd pose. When the electrocution had seemed to cease, Leorio slumped into a heap of 'carcasses' on the dirt, with his butt sticking up in the air most ungracefully.

"Leorio! What happened?" Gon cried out in panic upon seeing his friend smoking like he had been fried alive.

"What the—Who attacked him?" Killua, equally surprised by the sudden assault, quickly assumed his fighting stance.

Kurapika, on the other hand, could only exhale a tired sigh. This was the second time of the day that Bia threw her Nen around whimsically like that. She understood the first attack on Lucian, as she thought that the little girl was scared to be left alone with people she did not know. Kurapika was also aware, from that morning incident, that Bia was attached to her and (funnily) Kuroro because they had been the ones to come into contact with her the first time she was out of the abominable tank in Bensalem. She was just like a newborn chick, assuming the first person she saw as her parent.

"Kurapika! Be careful!" Gon said with concern.

Again, Kurapika sighed. This time she was not so sure on why Bia had launched an attack at Leorio. Looking down at Bia, she saw that the little girl had pursed her lips slightly and she had her arms wrapped around Kurapika's neck almost protectively.

_Did she think Leorio was going to attack me?_ Kurapika wondered. Well, Leorio did seem like he was going to tackle her down, but she knew that it was not his intention. Apparently Bia only acted on her primal instinct.

"Kurapika! What's going on?" Killua asked warily.

The townspeople were already getting agitated by the commotion that her trio Hunters friends were making.

"Relax, Killua. Nobody is going to attack us." She said with calm voice.

"Then what was the thing that attacked Leorio? It was obviously an ATTACK!" Gon exclaimed.

Kurapika had just opened her mouth to give an explanation, but a booming voice easily drowned her voice.

"WHOSE NEN WAS THAT JUST NOW?"

Breaking through the cordon of curious townspeople was a tall, lean muscular man with dark skin and outrageous coal-black dread-lock hair. He walked towards them in long stride and stopped a few paces shy from the smoking Leorio to assess the circumstance. When Kurapika saw him, she knew then that they had been sent there to check on her by the Hunters Association.

"What now?" She asked warily. Whenever and wherever Cash was, there would always be troubles in the end.

"Kurapika, you are really alive and kicking! 'Atta girl!" Cash swung his broad hand with intention of patting Kurapika's shoulder as per his usual custom with Kurapika—which she was not too happy about.

Just when Cash's hand was a few inches away from her shoulder, there was sparks of electricity again. Cash withdrew his hand immediately as if he had just touched a white-hot burning metal. Kurapika, on the other hand, felt nothing. Killua and Gon immediately tensed up upon seeing this, while Leorio was still blissfully unconscious (and smoking) on the ground.

"No, Bia. They mean no harm." Kurapika told the white-haired girl in her arms. Bia then quickly buried her face on the crook of her neck.

"What the—" Killua started upon realising the meaning of those words.

"So it's this lil' lass, then, huh?" Cash rubbed his palm; it turned itchy because of the electromagnetic contact with Bia's aggressive Nen.

Kurapika turned to the bemused Killua and Gon, gave them a strange apologetic smile.

"Do you mind long stories?" She asked them as she half-turned towards the direction of Lucian's mansion.

"Hell no." Killua said with his characteristic cheeky grin.

* * *

"Oh dear, oh dear." Lucian muttered as he stood by a window of his mansion, observing the procession of six people approaching his domicile. "Suddenly I become a host of an unprecedented party."

Kuroro stood by his side and said nothing at all. He had his hands in the pockets of his coat, and his countenance bore no emotions whatsoever. However, his eyes were trained on one particular person down there—a certain conspicuous man whom he suspected went by the name of Cash. No wonder Shalnark was rather nervous earlier; as fellow Hunters, Shalnark ought to have heard of something unpleasant regarding the man. A furtive smirk graced his thin lips as he could wonder what kind of fun he would be able to elicit from that man. From the last conversation he had with that man via cell phone, he had the general idea on what kind of man Cash was—definitely someone with hot head and quick temper.

"Then I suppose as a good host I must greet them and all. Oooh, busy busy busy." Lucian shook his head as he left his post by the window and walked towards the staircase.

"One thing, Lucian."

"Hm?"

"Can you get a replica of my broken earring?"

Lucian froze for a while, but he quickly relaxed himself. He waved an impatient hand at him while he walked down the stairs.

"It's being taken care of. I'll give you once it's ready, which I think will be in a few days more."

Kuroro stood there for a few moments even after Lucian had gone, before he made a turn towards the staircase.

* * *

After telling them to wait in the living room, Kurapika had gone to the kitchen while bringing Bia along. It was nearing midday and she had to prepare for Bia's meal. Since it had been 15 years since the last time she ate real food, Bia could not eat solid food yet so Kurapika had to practically set baby food for her. She felt like she was back to the time when she had to take care of Meta when he had been only a few months old. Fortunately, Bia was never a picky 'baby'—anything that Kurapika prepared for her she would swallow it without a word (or gesture in her case) of protests. Meta, on the other hand, had been a real demon.

Thinking that since it was very easy (and most importantly CLEAN) to feed Bia, Kurapika thought of feeding her while talking with her friends. As such, she carried Bia with one arm; her weight still had yet to improve, while she carried Bia's porridge-like food with the other hand. The moment she entered the said living room, however, she thought she had entered the wrong place.

For one, there were her three best friends sitting close together on the sofa. Killua was in his own private Heaven with all the assortments of chocolates; branded and definitely luxurious, spread before him. It appeared that Lucian had ordered his servants to serve the best snacks they had, and the servants had really gone all out with it. Gon was, quite in contrary to his best friend's behaviour, looking at one particular direction in the room, and so did Leorio. Both of them had quite identical expression of worry on their face, but Leorio's complexion had this peculiar shade of blue or purple as if his oxygen supply had been rudely cut off. Following their anxious gazes towards their subject of attraction, Kurapika understood why they sported that kind of look.

At the centre of the room; emanating absolutely unpleasant auras that could make one's stomach lurched uncomfortably, were two people facing each other as if they looked like they wanted to bite off each other's head but had refrained from doing so for the sake of graciousness towards the owner of the mansion. One aura was blazing like bonfire while the other's was deathly glacial.

Kurapika sighed. She had seen this coming, but had not expected it to happen so soon and so abrupt. Besides, she wondered what had happened that Kuroro could be provoked to that extent. Leisurely, she took one seat among her other three friends and seated Bia on her lap.

"So," she started with comfortable tone, "how did _that_ start?"

Gon turned to look at Kurapika with a kind of pleading look. Leorio was too scared to tear his attention off the two very powerful Nen-users, in case he had to bolt out of the room in emergency to save his sorry behind.

"Don't you feel the need to separate them? They look like—"

"They want to strangle each other to death, yes. They may as well do it to their hearts' content for all I care." Kurapika said while rolling her eyes. She then began feeding Bia and the latter simply swallowed the food obediently like the perfect role model for babies.

"Um, well… You see…"

xXx

When Kuroro entered the room, those Hunters had been expecting Kurapika and so they were quite taken aback to see the Spider Head strolling into the room instead. Leorio dropped his piece of cake from his open mouth, Killua stopped chewing, Cash stared indiscreetly at the raven-haired man, while Gon opened his mouth wide in surprise.

"Mr. Kuroro!"

Kuroro did not reply Gon's greetings, but Cash responded violently at this. He chocked on the food that he was half-swallowing, and after struggling with it for a while and winning the silly tug-o-war against the guilty cake, Cash straightened up and scowled fiercely at Kuroro.

"YOU!" He strode towards Kuroro while rudely pointing a finger at him. "THAT SHAMELESS BASTARD!"

Leorio gave a squeak of fright as this sounded very much like a declaration of war towards the dangerously unpredictable leader of the notorious Genei Ryodan. Kuroro's reaction was only an amused smile and he did not look the least bit offended. In fact, casually he shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat and took a very relaxed stance. He threw a measuring glance at Cash.

"So we finally meet," Kuroro said coolly.

"Where's Kurapika? Where did you hide her?"

Gon's, Killua's and Leorio's jaws dropped as they heard this. That sounded utterly, idiotically childish.

"Why should I hide her?" Kuroro said as he suppressed his laugh.

"Who knows? You are Kuroro Lucifer, leader of the Genei Ryodan! You guard things you perceive as your possession with jealousy!" Cash said while flailing his fist.

"So you are implying that she is indeed my possession?" Kuroro said slowly while tilting his head slightly.

"YOU—!"

"He's right, Cash. You did imply that." The trio sitting on the couch said. Gon looked like he was sorry that Cash had to, of all things, involve himself in a debate against, of all people, Kuroro Lucifer. Killua looked irritated by Cash's idiocy, while Leorio seemed embarrassed by Cash's thoughtless statement.

"Hey! Which side are you on?"

"I understand them coming here to visit her. But you?" Kuroro said again, this time with a somewhat degrading tone in his voice as if he was belittling him—a gesture intended to provoke Cash's temper; which succeeded wonderfully.

"You insolent punk—" Cash gave out a low savage, beastly growl.

"The idiot. He's just pulling his legs." Killua shook his head while beginning to turn his attention to the mountain of sweets pilling on the table.

"Come to think of it," Gon crossed his arms, "what are you here for, Cash?"

"Gon, not you too! What's so wrong with him visiting his friend? Kurapika's his friend, too, right?" Leorio conked Gon's head with his fist lightly.

"But using the Hunters' blimp? Isn't that abuse of power?" Gon pouted.

"Yeah, the old man gave you a mission concerning Kurapika, didn't he?" Killua said with muffled voice as he wolfed down a huge chunk of cake.

"What, you don't know?" Cash stared at them with incredulity as if they had turned into blathering retards. "Kurapika didn't tell you?"

"Tell what?"

Kuroro narrowed his eyes ever so slightly but he kept to his silence.

"The agreement between her and the Chairman. Kurapika was willing to sign up for the protection scheme provided by the Hunters Association since she's the last living Kuruta alive, so that Meta can be included in the protection as well. That's why we put tracking device inside her so that we can track her position whenever and wherever she—"

Cash did not manage to finish his sentence as suddenly a gush of arctic wind seemed to have assaulted him out of the blue. The source of that eldritch wave came from none other than Kuroro Lucifer. He was still in his relaxed stance and his hands were still in his pockets, however his eyes told a different tale.

"What the—"

"You put tracking device inside her?" Kuroro asked with trained voice, almost betraying the hostility-bordering-to-bloodlust that was dissipating from him.

"S, so what?" Cash sputtered. Kuroro's aura alone managed to intimidate him.

_Just as expected of the leader of the Spiders_, he vaguely thought. His pride as a Hunter, however, did not allow him to get scared like a beaten dog just like that. Straightening his stance once more and puffing up his chest in order to boost his own confidence, Cash scowled at him and crossed his arms defiantly.

"Meta as well?" Kuroro continued asking with frighteningly calm voice.

"No. She didn't allow." Cash growled.

Kuroro stared at him in a gesture that was similar to someone looking down at a piece of trash, though he did so more mildly. Kuroro stared into Cash's eyes, and the latter in an instant felt as if he was being shred into pieces inwardly, like he was being peeled off layers by layers like an onion; revealing his innermost part. His knees almost gave in when that bizarre sensation departed just as soon as it had invaded his senses. He looked at Kuroro, and found the man with youthful face frowning dangerously.

"You are here to install another tracking device into her since the last one was broken when we were in Bensalem." Kuroro said with low voice, and there was no mistaking about the absolute displeasure that coloured his voice.

"How the hell did you know that?" Cash exclaimed in indignation. Kuroro's words had been perfectly right on the mark.

Kuroro was too distracted by his anger that he harshly shrugged off the strange tingling sensation around his right eye that came when he was looking into Cash's eyes in attempt to read his intention. Coincidentally, it was his right earring that was broken during the escape from Bensalem.

xXx

"And Kuroro didn't say a single word after that and they've been doing this staring competition since then." Gon finished with a sigh.

Kurapika had been listening to Gon's story while feeding Bia. By the time Gon's story came to an end, Bia had finished all her food. Kurapika put the bone-thin girl on the puffy sofa and stood on her feet. She bent down to take a fork, and then a cake knife, another fork, and then another knife.

"Uh, Kurapika?" Gon asked, suddenly wary of Kurapika as she kept picking up the forks and knives silently from the table. Killua eyed her with excitement, knowing that something amusing would happen soon.

The sound of something cleaving through the air broke the concentration of both participants of the silly staring competition. Cash jumped a few metres away to avoid the sudden projectiles thrown at him, while Kuroro simply moved one arm and caught all projectiles with his one hand. He glanced and found that it was forks and knives that had been thrown at them. Glancing at Kurapika, Kuroro saw the said young woman standing with another full set of make-shift projectiles fashioned out of eating utensils in both hands. She had a very much pissed-off expression on her face.

"Kurapika, what was that? Why did you—"

"Shut up, you rambling fool." Kurapika said pointedly while shooting him with her infamous deathly glare. Cash instantly froze in his tracks and zipped shut his mouth.

Kuroro gave a soft chuckle and juggled the forks and knives in his hand singlehandedly. Kurapika turned to him and glared as well, but Kuroro was already immune to her glares since long time ago.

"Looks like the little trick I taught you years back comes in handy to you," Kuroro said with an amused smile.

"Very handy. Especially when there are hooligans harassing the inn back there." Kurapika said coolly, yet she did not lower her forks-and-knives-wielding hands.

"Shalnark didn't do his job?"

"If he did, he'd end up killing them instead of chasing them out," said Kurapika with slight disgust when she pictured that worst-case-scenario. "Anyway, stop being so childish! You're like overgrown kids."

"Kids? Why you, little—"

One glare from Kurapika, and Cash ducked his head low again.

"If I were any childish, I would have killed him right then right there." Kuroro said calmly; the belligerence had completely left him without leaving a trace. "Like a child whose favourite toy was being abused by another."

"Why, you." Veins popped on Kurapika's temple. "Now you are calling me your toy?" She growled.

"What do you prefer me to refer you as then?" Kuroro asked smoothly.

"I am not a thing!" Kurapika snapped.

"How about 'wife'?" Gon suggested innocently (as ever). Hearing this, Leorio's eyes bulged so huge they seemed to almost pop out of their sockets. Killua chocked on his cake but soon he plunged into a fit of hysterical laugh.

"Gon! Killua!" Kurapika yelled at them, though her face was beetroot red.

"What's so funny about it? Isn't that the perfect term since the two of you are married, anyway?" Cash, unwisely, piped in. "You even got a kid al—"

A glare from Kurapika, accompanied with one word dripping with probable death-sentence in it: "Cash."

"Yes, ma'am! I'm shutting up, ma'am!" Cash said immediately as he straightened up like a soldier listening to his Captain.

"And you! What's wrong with you, getting provoked so easily like that?" Kurapika said sternly as she turned to Kuroro.

"I just see the whole tracking device issue as a thoroughly pointless one." Kuroro said, and he spoke the word 'tracking device' with noticeable dislike.

"I'm the one getting the treatment, and you're the one getting all worked up about it for nothing. Honestly!"

"Exactly, Kurapika." Killua said as he swallowed a piece of chocolate rum-ball. "After all, Cash has a point there. Kuroro Lucifer does guard his possession with jealousy. To him, Cash's action is probably like a breach to his property," Killua turned to eye Kuroro, "right?"

Kuroro merely responded with a thin smile while Kurapika rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Whatever it is, this time I'm more inclined to agree with you, Kuroro. Cash, you are not putting that infernal device in me this time round because I'm doing something that is of a very private and personal matter. I would really appreciate it if _you_," Kurapika said pointedly while glaring at Cash, "can just kindly back of and give me more space for the time being."

"But Kurapika! I can't just do nothing! I have my duty and I have to report to the Chairman!" Cash whined.

"NO PROBLEM!" Gon and Killua cried out in unison as they got to their feet and rushed towards complaining dark-skinned, dread-lock haired man. They grabbed Cash's muscular arms and dragged him towards the door.

"We'll convince Chairman Netero, so don't worry, Kurapika!" Gon said cheerfully while waving his free hand vigorously at the dumbfounded Kurapika.

"Yeah. You just concentrate on finding Meta and leave this dunderhead to us." Killua said while giving a thumb-up. "Oy, O-san! Hurry up or we'll leave you behind!"

"Comin', comin'!" Leorio cried out while trying to grab as many cookies as possible and stuffed them into the pockets of his coat and pants.

"Ceh. Greedy slowpoke."

"Whaddya said?" Leorio roared, but he did leave the food and charged towards Killua nonetheless.

Just as they had reached the doorstep and were about to close the door behind them, a cool voice stopped them.

"Gon, wait."

All of them halted in their tracks. It was Kuroro who called out to Gon. He was already sitting on the couch when the two teenagers were busy dragging the trashing Cash out of the room. Gon; curious on what the infamous Spider Head was about to say, stood still and waited for the older man to say something. He stared at Kuroro, and vice versa. Kuroro himself seemed to be contemplating whether he should proceed with what he had intended to do, or not. In a split second, however, he made up his mind.

"Sit down here. There's something I wish to tell you."

From the way Kuroro talked, Gon instinctively knew that he meant business—and a serious one to top. Heck, in reality Kuroro Lucifer had never contacted them before. Gon threw an apologetic glance at Killua, who only shrugged and said not a single word of protest.

"Leorio, can you take my place here?"

"Hey, don't treat me like I'm some heavy luggage!" Cash protested as he swatted Gon's smaller hand away.

"But you _are_ heavy." Killua snickered as he began mercilessly dragging Cash by one arm only.

Leorio hurriedly caught up with them and the noisy group exited the room with Cash's cries of indignation trailing in their wake. Awkward silence descended into the room as Gon soundlessly made his way to the couch and as Kurapika eyed Kuroro warily. There had to be a reason why Kuroro had personally asked to talk with Gon in private. When Gon was comfortably seated in one of the available couches, Kuroro leaned forward and clasped his hands together with his elbows supported by his bent knees. He stared at the young teenager for a while, vaguely aware of the tingling sensation around his right eye.

"So you haven't met Ging, I see." Kuroro finally said quietly.

Gon started in unconcealed surprise.

"How did you know that?"

"I met Ging before reaching Yorkshin. He told me that he managed to get away from you just narrowly."

"I knew it! I knew Ging had just been recently there!" Gon exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Yes you almost got him," Kuroro nodded, "but it's still only an _almost_, yet how many years has it been since the first time you set out to find him?"

Gon's spirit immediately died down and he looked at Kuroro with unreadable expression. He understood Kuroro's implicit message: keep this up and it will take decades to finally catch up with Ging. Kurapika understood that as well, and for some reasons she felt that she had no right to be listening to this conversation. It would be unfair if she could hear everything while the other two could not. This was Gon's private affair and only he could decide whether to share it with them or not. In truth, Kurapika also felt rather aggrieved that Kuroro Lucifer, of all people, was the one who could hold a conversation with Gon regarding Ging to greater depth while they; his best Hunters friends, could not.

Having had enough of the awkwardness, Kurapika took Bia in her arms and excused herself silently out of the room. Bia wrapped her skinny arms around Kurapika's neck and nuzzled her head against the crook of Kurapika's neck. After the meal, she was positively full and therefore drowsy. Even as Kurapika closed the door behind her, neither of the two males in the room ever averted their attention to the closing door.

"What do you know so far of Ging?" Kuroro asked in the fashion of a teacher asking his pupil.

"Erm…According to his companions that we've met, he's a…well…'naïve, straight-forward, passionate, stubborn beyond saving, a daredevil, a proud man, has no other better job than to tease the hell out of us, loves adventures; the more dangerous the better, adores weird creatures; the wackier the better, surprisingly shy around crowds of strangers or unknown people'. That's the compilation of their description of him, I guess?"

"I see. Now try putting yourself in his position. Imagine yourself as being him, with those traits that you have gathered about Ging. Try imagining how he will think when someone is after him yet he doesn't want that person to find him. What will he do?" Kuroro asked again. "What will you do?"

Gon did as Kuroro instructed. He closed his eyes and imagined himself being Ging. He imagined himself trying to avoid someone who was after him.

"Don't forget the most important part about him: he is very passionate of his occupation. Of archaeology. Of the lost ruins. Of recovering them." Kuroro said coolly with voice that he knew Gon would hear yet it would not break his concentration. Anansi had once told him about Ging once out of randomness, and the spider incarnation had pointed out that Ging's passion was his most striking feature.

Gon implanted Kuroro's words into his being and again tried to imagine the same situation. If he was Ging, he would not want to completely hide from the pursuer because of his pride and also his passion for ruins. He would not want to abandon it, even when he was trying to avoid some people. He would continue finding those lost ruins and recover them. He would find those places while at the same time trying to shake off the pursuer. How would he do it?

* * *

She walked down the corridor towards the front door of the mansion—she wanted to see her friends off before they bolted away the moment Gon was back—with uncertain steps, with Bia sleeping soundly in her arms. She was really curious about what they were talking about, especially so because it was Kuroro who instigated the conversation. With this busy mind, Kurapika absentmindedly opened the front door and stepped out without noticing that someone was observing her all the while.

"Hey."

Kurapika looked up and saw that it was Killua who had called at her. He was leaning against the stone wall of the old mansion with his hands tucked into the pockets of his pants.

"I thought you're trying to convince Netero not to put that tracking device into me?" Kurapika asked not accusingly.

"I'll do that with Gon later. Besides, it can wait. I have the feeling that it'll be a long time before we'll meet again after this, so I think this is the best time."

Killua straightened up and faced Kurapika fully. Now that he was around nineteen-years-old, Killua had undergone a sort of growth spurt and he was now slightly taller than Kurapika. Kurapika raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"Before we came here," Killua began, "we bumped into that stupid samurai from the Spiders."

_Nobunaga_, Kurapika murmured inwardly. "And?"

"Aside from the usual routine of him trying to convince Gon to join the Spiders, he actually mentioned Meta this time round. He said he's looking for Meta, as are the other Spiders"

Killua stopped for a while to observe Kurapika's reaction—so far there was none, since after all Machi had told her before.

"He also told me about what Meta did with them during his brief stay with them back then in Yorkshin. He mentioned things like Meta climbing them, Meta making a complete fool out of most of them, Meta making huge commotion, Meta this Meta that."

Kurapika narrowed her eyes. Somehow, she did not really like the direction of this conversation.

"It seems that he likes Meta despite his endless complaints. He also said that if Uvogin was still alive, he would have been the best playmate for that 'little demonic kid'." Killua slowed down and again observed Kurapika's countenance—it was dark and ominous. Despite so, Killua continued on, "He then declared that he wishes for Meta to join the Spiders."

"Like hell I would allow that to happen!" Kurapika practically screeched here. "Over my dead body!"

"I knew you'd say that. However, that's not the point of me telling all this to you."

"What then?"

"It seems…" Killua's voice turned rather reluctant, "that Meta has find friends in them."

Kurapika opened her mouth but no words came out of it. She wanted to say that Meta could not be friends with them because they were world-class criminals; most wanted with enormous bounty for each of their heads. However, there was one fact that stopped her from saying that Meta could not be friends with them.

In the town where they were living, Meta had no friends of his age at all.

* * *

Suddenly, something clicked in Gon's mind and his eyes sprang open. He jumped to his feet with his head held high and a look of wonderment on his lit face.

"I should've realised this before! I'm so stupid! Thank you, Mr Kuroro! Now I know what plan to make with Killua!" Gon exclaimed as he started towards the door.

However, when he had just barely taken three steps away from the sofa, Gon stopped and returned back to his seat. Kuroro raised a quizzical eyebrow at this but asked nothing. He knew that the boy would explain the reason.

"In exchange for your help, I'd like to tell you something. I don't know if Kurapika has told you this or not, but I have the feeling that she hasn't." Gon said with kindly voice and expression. If anything, he seemed excited to say it.

"Which is?" Kuroro asked patiently.

"It's about Meta. You know that Kurapika and Meta are living in Fino's town, right?"

Kuroro nodded silently as he was trying to read the flow of this conversation.

"Well, truth is Meta has no friends in that town."

At this, Kuroro did not bother to conceal his surprise; though the only indication of his surprise was that he frowned deeply. In his mind, Kuroro thought that a child with such sunny disposition would naturally have many friends, just like Gon did. What was it that prevented that to happen?

"Why do you think?" Gon asked Kuroro this time.

"I wouldn't know." Kuroro answered deadpan and truthfully.

"It's because the town children told him that his father had abandoned him, that he was just a fatherless child. Meta has always been a strong kid. At first he endured the teasing wonderfully, until one day he snapped. He beat up the town children who often made fun of him, causing most of them to be hospitalised. Well, I think it's partially our fault since we've started training him since he was able to walk."

Silence descended among them again. Kuroro simply did not know what to say. He could conclude from Gon's short narrative that Meta had been bullied in the town and had endured it, but Meta did not show the common symptoms of bullied children.

"The best part is when Meta screamed at those punks that he believed that his father would come back for them one day. When one of the kids called them; Kurapika and Meta, that is, as hopeless dreamers, Meta lost it. That kid ended up getting into emergency room at the end of the fight." Gon grimaced as he cited the last sentence.

Having trained his skill of putting on mask of indifference to the extent that it would shame even professional actors, Kuroro's face was an eternal landscape of detachment to the world. Without him being aware of it, however, he felt strangely warm and proud in the inside.

"So you are saying that I am the one responsible for Meta getting bullied by the town children?" Kuroro asked with even voice.

"…I guess you could say so." Gon answered with a shy grin. "I just feel that you should've been more responsible," he continued bluntly.

Kuroro chuckled at this.

"If I'm irresponsible, then why do you think I'm doing this trip?"

* * *

He was back in his own bedroom and he was deep in thought when a soft knock rattled on the door. Without so much as glancing at the door, Kuroro muttered the word "Come in" rather absentmindedly. When he realised who it was that he had invited into his room, Kuroro deliberately broke his train of thoughts and looked up.

He saw Kurapika standing a few paces shy from where he was sitting. Bia was nowhere to be seen and so Kuroro gave him a questioning glance.

"She is in deep sleep. She is highly unlikely to get woken up once she has gone into this kind of sleep." Kurapika explained.

"And you are here for?" Kuroro clasped his hands and gazed at the blonde woman.

Kurapika was silent for a moment, before she finally replied with sincere voice: "That was generous of you."

The moment Gon was done talking with Kuroro, the former had bolted out of the mansion as if his butt was on fire. He had grabbed Killua along the way and dragged him towards the blimp while shouting something like "I know how to catch Ging now!" or something along that line, and also a hasty "Bye, Kurapika! It's nice to see you healthy and all. See you again soon!" From that, Kurapika could deduce that Kuroro had given Gon some handsome tips on how to catch up with Ging.

Kuroro only shrugged at this compliment.

"I was only thinking, or perhaps imagining," Kuroro muttered in a pensive fashion, "that Gon's situation is similar to Meta's."

Kurapika's surprise was very apparent when she heard this. Not only that the thought never crossed her mind before, but also she was surprised that it was, of all people, Kuroro Lucifer who discovered that subtle similarity. Heen's words then resonated in her mind:

_He said he wished he had spent more time with him. If you ask me, from the way he spoke about this matter, I'd say that he'd thought of the boy from time to time._

Remembering this, Kurapika could not suppress her smile.

* * *

A man clad in black with luscious silky black hair and paraffin white skin glided across the carpeted corridors of the _Curtea Domnească_; the main mansion belonging to the ruling family of Wallachia. The servants bowed their heads low in respect as he passed them, and despite being of the royal blood, this man took his time returning their gesture of respect with greetings. His stride was long and fast, indicating that he was there for urgent business. Knowing this, all servants immediately made way for the young master.

"*Old man!*" Lucian exclaimed when he had reached a certain room in the gargantuan mansion.

The room he had entered was steeped in dense darkness. It was as if darkness itself had been manifested there and took form of thick fogs that completely engulfed the room. It was unknown whether the room was barely furnished or not. For normal human, the only thing they could were perhaps the carpet on the floor that was stretched long into the embrace of the darkness, and the stone wall that was decorated with gorgeous paintings of various themes and other luxurious yet sparse ornaments.

"*Manner, Lucian. Manner.*" said an ancient-sounding voice coming from the deepest recess of the darkness.

"*Pardon me, _Your Highness_.*" Lucian said while enunciating the last word with a tint of sarcasm. "But I have a request here."

"*Which is?*" The Count asked in a somewhat laidback attitude.

Even when confronted like that, Lucian held back in hesitation for a moment. It seemed that he was most reluctant to voice out his request, yet he badly needed it to be done as soon as possible. After drawing a long breath, Lucian opened his mouth and let his words flowed out smoothly:

"*May I speak with Mihai?*"

At this, the Count of Wallachia who was shrouded in darkness burst into a roar of laughter.

"*What foolishness! There is absolutely no need for you to ask permission from me for such trivial thing!*" The Count said, half-scolding and half smothering his laugh. "*You know very well that Mihai of the Solomonarii favours you the most.*"

There was a gloom in Lucian's countenance, indicating that he was not too happy about the fact that he was a favourite.

"*What business do you have with them, pray tell?*" The Count asked with mild curiosity.

At this, Lucian grimaced.

"*I need to send urgent message to someone out there.*"

* * *

"*Oh my, such an honour for me to be graced by my master's son. Still a sapling and yet already he is so dashing.*" A voice, smooth and silky, resounded across another dark room in the _Curtea Domnească_ and it reached Lucian's keen ears. Beyond that deceptively young voice, Lucian knew that he was facing a being that was older than him by another set of centuries.

"*Mihai, you are my father's most faithful and powerful servant. I wish you would be so kindly as to lend me your help, aid me in my humble quest to help my human friend,*" implored Lucian towards one of the ancient Solomonarii

"*Well, well, young master, such humility! Your wish is your command, though your father's wish will precede all orders you may put on me. If your father has no words against your wish, then so be it and I will fulfil, in the name of Uniilă my supreme mentor, whatever it is that you desire so.*"

At the mention of Uniilă, Lucian's heart skipped a beat and his own blood seemed to freeze. He knew that name; a name sung by those supernatural humans in praises—it was the devil mentor of the Solomonarii. The most powerful Solomonarii were the pet students of Uniilă, and it was best not to offend them, much less get in their way.

"*So, young master Lucian, pray tell me what it is that you want to request of my service?*" Mihai; the deadly human witch of the royal family of Wallachia, asked coyly.

"*I will only confine my wish into one simple request.*"

"*Name it, and you shall have it.*" Mihai said, and there was a dreadful excitement in her alluring voice.

"*My only request will be to ask for your familiar to send a message to a personage who goes by the name of Anansi, whose location currently is unknown even to me.*"

"*Anansi? Oh, I have heard of him. Why, young master, you have made such a highly esteemed acquaintance! You surpass my expectation.*" Mihai said with a giggle, and Lucian thought that he detected sincerity in her tone. "*That will be done easily. I understand that you may want to deliver your message in private and I trust you and your love for your father that your message will intend no harm to the royal house—*"

"*The thought never crossed my mind. And it will never.*" Lucian intercepted indignantly, apparently feeling insulted by Mihai's words.

A peal of Mihai's amused laugh rang in the dark room.

"*Pray forgive me and my rudeness, then. In that light, I will give you this.*"

Lucian heard a swish of fabric from the recess of darkness and he could imagine that Mihai had waved her hand in a fashion to throw something in his direction. The vampire reached out his hand and a small curious object landed perfectly on his open palm. It was a stone with indefinite shade; sometimes it seemed to glinted black, but in the next instant it seemed to gleam white.

"*Speak your message to the stone and hurl it to the heavens while naming the destination. It will take the most suitable form to reach the destination and it will go forthwith.*" Mihai explained most patiently.

"*I will expect a reply from Anansi himself. Is it impossible to estimate the time your familiar will require to complete the whole journey forth and back?*"

"*Is this an important business, then?*"

"*It may affect my friend's life to great extent.*"

"*Ah! Then I have given you the right familiar for the job. Now pray waste no more time in my humble abode, my dear young master. Send your message with no more delay, I beseech you.*" Mihai said with such merriment as if this whole affair was of a festivity.

"*I am truly grateful of your aid, Mihai. You have my greatest gratitude.*" Lucian said with a bow.

"*Speak nothing of it, young master. I am but your servant.*"

"*Nevertheless, I thank you. Then I shall take my leave now.*" With that, Lucian walked towards the door and disappeared behind it as he closed the door soundlessly.

Mihai leaned back in her comfortable 'throne' and could not help but let a broad smile spilled from her mouth. Soon enough, wind blew in her chamber and a few extra presences occupied the abysmally dark room.

"*Hum! It looks like the young master has truly found his match. I have never seen him spending so much of his energy in helping someone before, much less a human.*" Said a male voice in the thick darkness of the grand chamber.

"*Exactly my sentiment. He even goes as far as personally visiting sister Mihai's chamber to request for her aid. How truly unconventional of him!*" Another voice, young and sweet, chimed jovially. There were other rings of laughter belonging from different individuals.

"*You upset me, brothers and sisters. One will think of me as such a monstrosity from the way you speak of this.*" Mihai protested, though there was only playful indignation in her youthful voice.

"*Well, look at who is to blame, sister. Need I remind you of the good old time when you have jinxed poor young master, over and over again, in his early childhood, in your mischief born of your boredom?*"

"*Oh, I shall not deny that for that is the truth. I could not help it, you see. The young master has always been so adorable in that aspect.*" The most powerful female Solomonar said in a coo.

"*Gullible, you mean?*"

"*Perfectly so.*"

"*Then I do hope that you have not handled his request with the same mischievous intention.*"

"*Oh, no of course. I will be a fool not to see how he handles this business of his so delicately, treating it as of utmost importance.*" Mihai answered with a thin knowing smile. "*Especially when I am aware that this friend of his is of our kind, distant as it may be.*"

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Personally, I think the comedy is rather lacking here. I want to subject Cash into more embarrassment and 'humiliation', but couldn't really find any wonderful ideas without getting Kuroro too OOC. Btw, for your information, do you notice that Kuroro was having a new strange symptom whenever he talks with people; the tingling sensation around his right eye when it's his right earring that's missing? This is a hint, people. A hint ^_^_

_**Next:**__ Who was this Mihai of the Solomonarii that Lucian and his father were talking about? In the first place, what was a Solomonar? Also, what was the meaning of Mihai's words when she spoke of Kuroro being 'of our kind, distant as it may be'? Kuroro was finally showing that he did put Meta in his concerns as well—that he did think of the boy from time to time—much to Kurapika's relief. How would things go from there? When would they finally reach Meta?_


	18. Chapter 16: Return

_**Disclaimer: **__Has never been once mine._

_**Story so far:**__ Kuroro had been generous enough to suggest ideas on how to catch up with the ever-elusive Ging; which allowed Kurapika a glimpse of his softer side as he compared Gon's situation with Meta's._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 16**

_**RETURN**_

_**

* * *

**_

It had been Kurapika's goal to train Bia so that she could start walking on her own two feet before they departed from Muntenia. It was not because she was too heavy for Kurapika to carry all the time—Bia virtually had almost no weight—but Kurapika's concern was when the time came for her to leave the little girl on her own. As Kuroro had predicted, Kurapika had the good sense to know that their journeys would not be so easy and it would be utter foolishness to carry along a little girl who was more like a baby than anything else; a baby who did not cry, though.

Right after her friends' departure from the coastal town by means of the Hunters Association's blimp, Kurapika had spent the whole day helping Bia with her physical exercise. However, much to her chagrin, Bia was way too dependent on her and no matter what Kurapika did, the little girl would not let go of her. The only thing that she managed to achieve after a whole day of exercise was that Bia finally managed to stand on her own two feet, albeit wobbly.

Thoroughly exhausted, when Kurapika returned with Bia to their private room that Lucian loaned to them, she collapsed onto the bed after depositing the incommunicado white-haired little girl on the queen-sized bed. She buried her face into the lush bedding of the bed with a long heave of sigh.

_What should I do? Bia is not progressing well, or rather she refuses to for some reasons…I can't take her with us, but I can't waste time here as well. Meta's waiting somewhere out there…Not to mention that Bia will throw violent tantrums when neither me nor Kuroro are around her. _

Kurapika groaned as she listed down her dilemma that she was facing. Kurapika twisted her neck so that her cheek was rested on the cool bed sheet. She then closed her eyes and decided to turn her brain into 'Hybernate' mode for a few moments as she could literally feel her brains getting numbed by the conflicting thoughts going around in her mind. Not long after, however, the door of the room clicked open and was soon enough closed almost inaudibly. Kurapika listened to the muffled sound of footsteps falling on the carpeted floor of the room. She knew that it was Kuroro, and she could not help but wonder why he was there. They stayed in different bedroom, after all.

At first Lucian had insisted on putting them in the same bedroom with king-sized bed but due to severe one-sided objection—Kurapika had glared at him viciously when he suggested the idea while Kuroro had displayed no visible response—Kurapika was finally given a room with queen-sized bed since she would be taking care of Bia.

Kurapika could feel Bia shifting on the bed; presumably she was turning around to observe the person who had just entered the room without permission. Three dull clinks told Kurapika that Kuroro had just put something made of glass on the wooden table. _Glass? Bottle?_ Kurapika wondered, yet she had made no attempt to stir from her position at all.

Kuroro had actually put a small bottle containing drink that he had received from the local people and two cups. He had gone to the town to fetch the replica of his broken earring. Lucian had to go to the main mansion for some business, and so he told Kuroro to get his earring himself. When he put on the replica, Kuroro noticed that it still felt different. The 'fake' earring felt strangely out of place on his ear.

On the way back to Lucian's mansion, a local old man had approached him and gave him a bottle of Socată; a Wallachian traditional non-alcoholic drink. Apparently, the old man was one of the fishermen who had discovered them stranded by the shore of Tulcea. Out of genuine relief that the three of them had actually survived the winter sea of Muntenia, the old man presented them with his handmade specialty drink. It was a drink made from flowers of a kind of elderberry.

Bia observed Kuroro as he put down the bottle and the two cups on the wooden table and finally seated himself on a chair. Kuroro then stared at Kurapika's motionless body, as if he was thinking of something vis-à-vis her. Bia looked at Kuroro, and then to Kurapika. After a while, she scooted closer to Kurapika and reached out to tug at her sleeve.

"No. Don't disturb her. Let her have her deserved rest." Kuroro said quietly as he took out a book from his coat and began reading it.

Kurapika was actually surprised to hear that since Kuroro had never attempted to talk to Bia at all before, but she endeavoured not to give away the fact that she was not asleep. She was curious on how Kuroro would handle Bia. Bia stopped her hand from reaching for Kurapika's sleeve and instead turned to Kuroro, staring at him with her big eyes. She stared at him for the longest time, until Kuroro finally broke the silence that surrounded them.

"It seems that you have something to say, but considering that you can't say it," Kuroro looked up and stared directly into Bia's hazel eyes, "then show it."

Bia blinked at Kuroro's words.

"Show, not tell. Show me what you want, what you have in mind." Kuroro instructed.

Bia was silent for a while with her head cocked to her side; a gesture that indicated that she was thinking hard. After a while, she finally extended her arms towards Kuroro like a child who wanted to be carried by her father. Kuroro raised an eyebrow as he understood this silent message by the mute girl. Kuroro put down his book and clasped both his hands.

"If you want it, then come here. Walk on your own feet. She has been training you, hasn't she?" Kuroro said as he threw a quick glance at the (supposedly) sleeping Kuruta. "Don't be a spoiled child. If you want something, work for it."

There was a faint glint flashing in Bia's eyes, and soon enough she found herself struggling at the edge of the bed trying to get herself steady on her own tiny feet. Her knees were wobbly, and she felt like she could collapse anytime, but she persevered. It took her a long time to even stand steadily, but Kuroro waited patiently. He was always the patient man, after all. Bia finally braced herself to take the first few steps on her own feet without any aids for the first time after 15 years.

Five steps, and then she went down face-first onto the floor. Shocked by the sudden collapse, Bia's eyes grew big. Soon enough, tears started streaming down her cheeks in silence. Kuroro still did not budge from his seat.

"It must have hurt so much, since your nerves have not been accustomed to pain for 15 long years. Therefore they are more sensitive beyond average." Kuroro noted, but did not make a move to help her up. "Now don't stop. I won't go there to help you. Help yourself."

Kuroro's voice was flat and almost devoid of any feelings. He just sat there imposingly like a king in his throne. There was even a challenging air around him as he continued to observe Bia. Swallowing hard, Bia clenched her small fists and struggled to get to her feet again. When she succeeded in it, Bia continued with her quest of crossing the room to reach Kuroro, and when the said man was within her arms' reach, she practically threw herself at him. Kuroro, by the Lord's grace, finally moved and caught her in his arms. Effortlessly, he hauled her up and carried her in his arms.

"Well done." He said with quiet voice, and there was the tiniest scintilla of satisfaction in his voice.

For Kurapika, it was utterly alien to hear such words coming from Kuroro Lucifer. Was she having some hearing impairment or was she really dreaming? She was positive that she was exhausted, but at the same time she was also sure that she had not fallen asleep. In that case, it seemed that she was confronted by yet another discovery about the man's other side.

There was a soft rap on the door, and the antiquated door creaked open as a head peeked into the room.

"Kurapika? It's time for Bia's—Oh."

The visitor was none other than Shalnark, and he was looking straight at Kuroro Lucifer who was carrying little Bia in his arms as if she really was his daughter. Bia herself was encircling Kuroro's neck with her stick-thin arms and lay her head on his shoulder. The sandy-brown haired Spider could only blink several times. Seeing that Shalnark was not about to continue with his sentence, Kuroro generously tried to supply it.

"Is it time for her medical appointment?" He asked calmly, as if Shalnark's mild amazement was nothing significant; as if he did not mind being perceived in such a gentle persona.

"Uh, yeah… Usually it's Lucian who administers the drug, but since he's away right now, he asked me to do it in his stead." Shalnark explained smoothly, having recovered from the shock quickly.

The younger Spider slipped into the room and in his hands were a glass of water and a syringe that contained clear liquid. Bia visibly flinched at the sight of the sharp needle and quickly buried her head in the crook of Kuroro's neck. She also tightened her hold around Kuroro's neck as if he was her lifeline. Despite Bia's apparent display of fear towards the syringe, both Spiders ignored it. Kuroro stood unmoving as Shalnark approached them. Shalnark had just touched Bia's arm, but the girl twitched violently and began shuddering. It seemed that she—or rather, her body—vaguely remembered the injections she had undergone in Bensalem.

"Just be quick." Kuroro told Shalnark. The latter simply nodded and did just so.

"Bia, c'mon, have this." Shalnark said soothingly at the scared little girl as he lifted up the glass of water. With her head still buried in Kuroro's shoulder, she shook her head. "Oh my. You only listen to Kurapika, don't you?" Shalnark muttered with pursed lips. "Come on, don't make my life harder."

Still Bia shook her head in refusal. Shalnark sighed.

"Danchou, you try?" He asked his Danchou with hopeful eyes.

Him being in good mood at that moment, Kuroro relented to give it a shot. Under normal circumstances, he perhaps would have declined to do so since he was not too fond of the idea of the little girl getting too attached to either him or Kurapika, or both. Taking the glass from Shalnark's hand, Kuroro spoke to Bia softly.

"Bia," was all that he said, but Bia responded just beautifully. She actually peeked at Kuroro's face with an expression that might be described as sullen; though it was hard to tell because of her lack of expressions.

Kuroro pushed the glass toward her face, and Bia backed a bit. She looked down at the seemingly harmless drink, and then to Kuroro's abysmal black eyes. She looked down at the glass again, and then this time she leaned forward so that her lips touched the rim of the cold glass. Slowly, Kuroro tilted the glass so that the content poured into Bia's small mouth. When she had finished the entire glass, in a matter of seconds suddenly Bia's eyelids started to drop. She leaned on Kuroro's shoulder again, and the next thing he knew Bia was already slumbering in his arms.

"What is this?" Kuroro asked Shalnark as he handed him the empty glass.

"Lucian said it's something like a sedative, but for Bia it works like sleeping pill. He said during the first time he tried injecting Bia when she was wide awake, and in turn he was 'punished' for it."

"Another episode of electrocution, then," Kuroro said with a low chuckle.

Shalnark shrugged with a smile. He then took off the cap of the syringe and quickly injected the so-called muscle-stimulant drug into Bia's systems. When he was done, he took off the needle and dumped it into the nearest trash bin while he pocketed the empty syringe. With the empty glass in one hand, Shalnark turned towards the door.

"Good evening, Danchou." He said cheerily, before closing the door behind him without even waiting for Kuroro's response.

"Evening to you too." Kuroro nonetheless returned the greeting.

Approaching the bed, Kuroro laid the sleeping Bia on the bed and then turned to observe her back that was toward him. He bent down slightly and stopped when his face was only a few inches above Kurapika's nape. Kurapika, wondering on what was going on in the room since she dared not to open her eyes yet, struggled not to give herself away. However…

"IYAAAAAAH!"

Now the reason for Kurapika's very-unladylike scream was because Kuroro suddenly blew at her nape—exactly her sensitive spot. She rolled to her side in panic and scooted away as far as possible from the man while her hands quickly went to her nape; probably in her instinct to protect it from more incoming attacks.

"You can stop pretending to be asleep, Kurapika. I'm not blind." Kuroro said; his voice was laughing and so were his eyes.

"YOU—!" Kurapika's complexion blossomed into a pretty and rich shade of red; which only served to intensify Kuroro's amusement. "So you were only acting then?"

Kuroro straightened up and folded his arms across his chest.

"Really, now. What's the point in me trying to act the good guy while I have the good sense to know that I'm always the bad guy in your eyes?" Kuroro said, still with amusement.

"I never said that." Kurapika said in retaliation, although a tiny voice at the back of her head was telling her: _he has a good point there._

"That is the impression I have always had." Kuroro chuckled.

"You can never rely too much on impressions." She retorted, stubborn and determined to win the argument.

Kuroro raised an eyebrow and cocked his head sideways slightly; his bangs swaying slightly.

"Fair enough." He said finally at length. "In that case," Kuroro took a seat on the edge of the bed and stared straight at Kurapika with his obsidian-like eyes, "what am I to you?"

Kurapika froze.

"I can ask you the same thing." She said back, though her voice sounded somewhat constricted as if she was chocking.

"I asked the question first."

"I don't want to talk about this." Kurapika said waspishly as she turned around to leave the bed but Kuroro caught her wrist.

"Don't run away, Kurapika. Let's be honest here. I'd want to avoid any possible misunderstanding that may occur in the future so we better talk—"

"What do you mean with 'the future'?" Kurapika interjected him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"You are digressing." Kuroro stated with displease.

"No—I mean, yes, I'm digressing a little bit but I need to be clear about that. What do you mean with 'the future'?" Kurapika asked, this time with more urgency.

Kuroro frowned at Kurapika's reaction.

"I take it that you have been under the impression that I am going to leave you after this, then."

Kurapika held her breath. There was a truth in it.

"You aren't?" She asked with small questioning voice.

"If that is the case, it doesn't make sense for me to be doing all this troubles in the first place, does it?"

If Kuroro Lucifer was not interested in one thing, he would not bother to engage in any activity related to that particular subject. Such was his policy and it was not going to change anytime in the near future. He would not invest his time and energy for something that would not mean anything to him. Kuroro Lucifer was, after all, a man of practicality and pragmatism. Kurapika seemed to realize this, because she cast her eyes down in what could be deduced as embarrassment at her own foolishness.

"Last question." Kurapika muttered. "That 'you'. Was that 'singular' or 'plural'?"

Kuroro knew what she was asking about.

"Plural."

"Really?"

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"Not telling all the truth, yes." Kurapika said with the tiniest form of smile.

"Then we are clear about that. Now back to the previous topic."

"Urk. I don't—"

"Kurapika."

There was such emphasis in his tone, and there was also an underlying you-better-answer-it-or-you-will-regret-it kind of threat in it. Kurapika knew that she could not forever escape from that dreaded topic, so she might as well give it a shot and be done with it once and for all—hopefully.

With a sigh, she answered him.

"…Honestly, I don't know. It's a mixed feeling…an ambivalence."

"Why?"

It was such a simple question—one word that Kuroro Lucifer rarely used except when a certain blonde Kuruta was concerned—but it managed to stir a buried bitter sentiment deep within her; one that was coated in doubts and fear.

"Why?" She hissed belligerently. "Well, Mister Kuroro Lucifer, how do you expect me to feel when once you had been my blood-sworn enemy, and after that insane two-years roundabout journey you have become someone who knows me most because of that stupid 24/7 bond, and then we slept together but you simply left me with a vague message, and then I found myself pregnant with your child and only until recently you have never contacted me whatsoever—like I'm only your dispensable one-night stand whore?"

In all that rambling that Kurapika said in one draw of breath, there was only one crucial point in it: what am I to you? Ironically the exact question that Kuroro had asked her.

Kurapika had practically laid her negative feelings naked before him with this one-sentence (yes it was one sentence, in case you haven't noticed it) declaration, but what struck Kuroro the most was the last part that she had practically screamed out at him. Kuroro, for once, looked genuinely and openly astonished. If Lucian was there, he probably would have taken a dozen pictures of it.

"It has never crossed my mind." He declared solemnly.

"Then why—"

"I have told you before. It's the Solomon Ring."

"Confound that ring! You could've just put it somewhere el—"

"The Solomon Ring exploits its master's weakness, Kurapika." Kuroro said with dead serious tone as he pulled Kurapika closer to him by her wrist that was still captive in his hand. He stared right into her aquamarine eyes from such close proximity that their foreheads almost touched each other. "_You_ are my weakness. One and only."

That confession rendered Kurapika speechless. To be honest, she did not really understand the logic but it did not seem to matter anymore. She searched into those obsidian eyes frantically, as if looking for a piece of evidence of deception in the man's words. It was a pointless act, really, since there was no room for lies in those eyes.

_I never lie to you, Kurapika,_ Kuroro's words echoed in her head.

"And now your statement has brought to my mind a question which I have always wondered about." Kuroro said as he straightened up, released her wrist from his grip and drew away from her. There was a look on his visage that could only describe him as feeling rather cross. "Why didn't you contact me? You could've asked Shalnark for my contact."

Kurapika could not answer straight away.

"Why didn't you tell me about Meta?" He asked with considerably softer voice.

"I…" She started but paused. After a while of gathering her courage, she answered him: "I was afraid…"

"Of?"

"Rejection."

Kuroro's eyes; whether he realised or not, turned gentle. They sat together in silence, both contemplating the meaning of Kurapika's answer. Eventually, Kuroro broke the silent reverie.

"I admit that I was surprised when I found out about him, but…" He looked at Kurapika. "It was decidedly a pleasant surprise."

Kurapika was deathly silent for a while, but the moment she heard those words from Kuroro she finally managed to release a quiet sigh of immense relief. Fino had repeatedly told her that Kuroro would not deny the child (though Shalnark was often secretly dubious about this assertion of hers in that matter), but hearing it from the man itself was a completely different feeling.

"How unnerving." Kurapika said with a slight laugh in her voice as her shoulders slumped, releasing the tension. "He speaks just the way you do."

Kuroro raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"Example?"

"At one time, he told me that…" She paused and was suddenly very reluctant to continue.

"Kurapika. Out with it."

"…that I need you more than he does. Whatever that means…" She added the last bit hastily in clear embarrassment.

This time round, Kuroro did not even bother to conceal a broad grin.

"Do you?"

Kurapika's face turned humourless in an instant as she looked at him with a serious face. For five years she had pretended that the boy was doing fine even without a father. There were plenty others who could act as his father figure. However, she was wrong. She was so mistaken, so disillusioned. Meta was smarter than she had given him credit for, and lonelier than she had ever imagined.

"That comparative necessity is a relative issue. However," Kurapika looked up and stared right into his eyes. "He does need you. As much as I want_ed_ to deny it, Meta still needs his _father_."

Without any warnings, images of the boy's face flashed in Kuroro's mind. Then, a memory replayed in his mind—a memory that had been permanently burned into his retina and brains. It was when Meta had gingerly touched his face and murmured very quietly with hopeful eyes:

_Daddy…_

Suddenly, the two of them remembered the old days during their journey across the world eight years ago.

"_I'd rather die than bearing your child." She hissed belligerently._

"_Really? Be careful with what you say. It may just backfire." He evilly taunted her._

"_But remember, Kuroro Lucifer, I am not a cheap woman that you can use just like that and in reality I am NOT, and WILL NEVER BE, your wife."_

To think that now they were talking about _their_ child; _their_ son, life was indeed such an irony for the two of them.

"Truthfully," Kuroro started again after a moment of silence, "I was not convinced by Meta's account of him being able to recognise me because of a photo."

"I described you to him." Kurapika responded in very small voice, but was audible enough to reach Kuroro's keen ears.

"I'm honoured." Kuroro said with a smirk.

"Well I couldn't lie to him, telling him that his father is dead!" Kurapika retorted with red face. In truth, Kurapika could not bear the possibility of the boy finding out that his father was alive and that his mother had been lying to him all this time. She would rather die than to have Meta hate her for that. "Besides, I don't want him to hear all gossips about his father from other questionable sources."

"But he seemed to know where to find me."

"I suppose that's because—"

Suddenly, Kurapika's face turned waxen pale and her eyes widened in shock. Her mouth hung slack as she stared at Kuroro with a certain horror. Kuroro narrowed his eyes slightly and questioningly.

"Oh. My. God." Kurapika whispered as she brought a hand to cover her mouth. "I completely forgot…"

"About?"

"You do notice that Meta has a habit of talking by himself to nobody in particular, don't you?"

"Ah. Yes, an issue I was thinking of asking you about. To me, it's more like he's talking to someone invisible; who I believe is not a mere imaginary friend."

"It isn't." Kurapika shook her head slowly. "It isn't just an imaginary friend. It's Ishtar."

Kuroro's heart seemed to freeze upon hearing this.

"He can talk with Ishtar. Or rather, her spirit."

* * *

Lucian had barely reached his private mansion in the coastal town of Tulcea when his human friend came storming at him with air of agitation around him. Not only that it was highly unusual to see his stoic friend getting agitated even remotely, but also the raven-haired man had demanded to know the fastest way to reach Ryuusei-gai from Tulcea. His share of surprise was increased when Kuroro stated that he did not care if the means were supernatural; after the two-year journey around the world, Kuroro had made a point to Lucian that he had grown tired of encountering anymore mythical and supernatural creatures of any kinds. So far as Lucian knew, the only non-human that had been in contact with Kuroro was only him. Hatsubaba; despite her antics and her witch-like appearance, was only a human while Anansi had never actively approached Kuroro to keep in touch.

"If your only concern is the speed, then perhaps I know of a way to reach Ryuusei-gai in a matter of a few hours."

"Which is?" Kuroro asked rather impatiently.

"Ever heard of the _Halkyónē_?"

"No."

"Well, it's a sparsely populated clan that consists of creatures with upper torso of a woman and lower body of huge birds. They are something like…the Harpies, perhaps? The _Halkyónē_ ladies, however, tend to be shy towards humans and they are generally docile and even beneficial."

"Usually." Kuroro deduced with critical voice.

"Usually," Lucian agreed. "Since you said you don't mind non-human creatures _for now_, then I can make arrangement with them for you as soon as possible. Why the hurry, anyway?"

"Then I'll leave the matter to you." Kuroro said breezily as he walked past Lucian, completely ignoring the vampire's question.

This gesture left Lucian speechless that his mouth hung ajar. That was not the first time that Kuroro acted as if Lucian was not worth his time; in fact, the earlier days of their acquaintance with each other were absolutely worse. The vampire had decided to keep a positive outlook and considered the seemingly rude gesture as Kuroro trusting him enough to act very comfortable and at home around him. Still, at times he would get irritated by it.

"_Tupeul de ca om!_ (The nerve of that man)" He yelled at nobody in particular while throwing his hands in exasperation heavenwards. "_Doar tu aşteptăm şi să vedem!_ (Just you wait and see) _Sunt__atât__de gând să__-ţi arăt__cine__ai de a face__cu__!_ (I'm so going to show you who you're dealing with)"

With that, Lucian stomped his way to the highest peak of the hill where his mansion was. There was a tree that had not a single leaves on it; it looked like a dry tree yet it had yet to wither. Despite the dryness, the tree stood strong and majestic with the branch shooting up towards the open sky. Lucian whistled loudly and let the wind carried the high-pitch whistle with it; carrying a message that could only be deciphered by the intended recipient.

Not long after, from distant he could see a huge avian flying towards him.

* * *

"SAY WHAT?"

Lucian winced when Kurapika's screech abused his hearing. Unbeknownst to him, Kurapika still remembered the bad experience that she had when a certain Harpy had spirited her and Kuroro away to Chiron's forest back then when they first started their ridiculous journey. Suffice to say that Kurapika had quite a trauma from that experience, since she had practically plummeted towards the Earth from a very high altitude without mental preparation whatsoever.

"She is going to take you all the way to Ryuusei-gai, _dragă_ (darling)." Lucian answered her patiently.

Perching on one of the branches of the seemingly-dead tree before Kuroro, Kurapika, Bia (carried in Kurapika's arms), and Lucian, as they stood on the highest peak of the hill near Lucian's mansion, was a massive creature easily eight feet tall with upper torso of a voluptuous woman and the lower body—including the arms—of a great bird. She had short, wild auburn hair with some stray long strands standing up like thin tentacles. Her feathers were brown and black in colour, with the exception of her tail having rainbow colours. Her milky-coloured skin was a contrast to her dark-coloured feathers, and her eyes were of extraordinary colours; deep amethyst purple.

_Aha, such energetic young lady! _The creature exclaimed. Her voice was like a peal of bells; rich and pleasing to ears.

"Introducing to you Lady Gamayun of the _Halkyónē_." Lucian gestured at the short-haired purple-eyed creature, "She is one of the heads of the tribe, along with Lady Alkonost and Lady Sirin. But where are they now?"

_Ah, Sirin is right now in her nest in the garden of Ryuusei-gai,_ the half-bird half-woman said.

"Garden? Jungle, you mean." Lucian muttered under his breath. Kuroro heard this and his lips tugged into a tiny amused smile. He remembered the vampire getting lost in that huge 'garden' more than a decade ago.

_Alkonost is looking after her newborn child so she can't come along. The egg has just hatched several days ago,_ she continued lightly.

"Ah, no wonder the typhoon." Lucian said while nodding. It was said that when the egg of a _Halkyónē_ hatched, it would produce a sea storm. This particular storm that came along the birth of this Lady Alkonost's child was the one that brought demise to Bensalem that had its electromagnetic barrier torn down.

_So, Lucian-boy, you want me to carry these three to Ryuusei-gai?_ Gamayun asked as she eyed the three humans with great interest. She craned her neck down to get a better look at them. _Well, am I not lucky to have a very handsome man here?_ She giggled while ruffling her feathers excitedly after scrutinizing Kuroro.

Kuroro did not budge despite the dangerously close proximity between his face and the creature's huge one. When she was content with studying Kuroro, she turned to study Kurapika and Bia. Taking Kurapika's appearance as plain and common, her attention was immediately attracted to the white-haired skinny girl.

_And a very interesting little lady. In my hundred of years of existence, never before I have seen a human with so odd a shade of hair,_ Gamayun said as she studied Bia with curious eyes. The latter then sank into Kurapika's arm in attempt to escape Gamayun's scrutiny.

_Very shy, no less,_ Gamayun grinned as she pulled back her massive head. _Then, shall we depart?_

"Now?" Kurapika asked, taken aback by the abruptness of the invitation. "But Bia—"

"Oh, one moment, Kurapika." Lucian intercepted her as he approached her with a hand shoved into the pocket of his coat. "Bia, your hand please."

The said girl peeked from Kurapika's shoulder and timidly offered one of her bone-thin hands with her elbow rather tucked near her body. She was painfully shy around people, but Lucian was one of the people who came into contact with her on regular basis due to the daily injections and so she was willing to listen to him. The moment Bia's wrist was out in the open air, Lucian took something out of his pocket and put something around her wrist. The item closed with a soft click, and Lucian actually breathed a sigh of relief when he released Bia's wrist. Around Bia's thin wrist was a simple slim bracelet with gold enamel and three tiny moonstones embedded around the thin bracelet. Bia stared at it with her big eyes, while Kurapika raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What's that?"

"Something that Shalnark invented. Supposedly it can repress her Nen so she won't go around frying people into charcoal whenever she's throwing tantrums. _He_ said." Lucian emphasised on the last part, in case the device was defective and Kurapika would blame it to him. "The technology he derived from the bracelet that you guys took as souvenir from that slave-trading organization. He reversed the program." While the bracelet from Bensalem allowed free access to Nen regardless of the place, this one sealed away Nen.

"Heh." Kuroro chuckled in amusement. "Let's see whether it works or not, then."

Kuroro took a quick stride towards Kurapika, took Bia in his arms and then shoved her to Lucian's unsuspecting arms. Shocked with the sudden package in his arms, Lucian's first response was to hold on to it tightly. Kurapika had an equally shocked expression on her face; Bia being snatched from her arms just so suddenly, but she did not even have the chance to voice out a single syllable of protest before Kuroro snatched her by the waist and hauled her away. The only thing she could do was to give a loud huff as the blessed air was knocked out of her diaphragms, and she only vaguely heard a command being voiced out.

The impact made her disoriented, and it turned for the worse when she felt the air getting sucked downwards and she felt the drastic change of the air pressure around her. Her hearing seemed to be impaired as the only thing she could hear was the howl of the air and the deafening flapping sound of gigantic wings of a bird. In truth, it was not the air that was sucked downwards; it was her who was flown towards the clear sky on Gamayun's back. Frantically she tried to move about, to feel around her surrounding but she felt the familiar arms wrapped around her; locking her in position and not letting her budge an inch.

"What the—Hey! Let me go!" Kurapika screeched; unknowingly right at Kuroro's ear—making Kuroro winced.

_Too late, dearie. We are already this high up and I honestly do not feel like going down again,_ Gamayun said; her voice crystal-clear above the sound of roaring wind. Without gracing Kurapika with any options whatsoever, the human-bird hybrid started beating her wings and started advancing instead of floating in the air.

"WHAT?"

Kurapika practically scratched and trashed around in Kuroro's arms, making a shallow cut across his pale cheek with her fingernails as she tried to turn around and looked down to the ground. Like Gamayun had said, they were already high up in the sky and were speeding away from the Tulcea estate. For a fleeting second, Kurapika managed to see the vampire standing on the hill with Bia in his arms; his expression was like he was sentenced into the lowest level of Hell, while Bia's face donned the most deathly afraid expression Kurapika had ever seen on her emotionless face. Kurapika saw the pitiful little girl flailing her frail arms towards her and her mouth hanging agape. If she was any normal vocal girl, Bia would have screamed at her to 'come back and never leave me alone'.

But no words escaped her dry, parched lips, even as tears of despair streaked down her sallow cheeks. Worst still, her Nen was sealed away so she could take it out on her surroundings.

Lucian, on the other hand, seemed furious for various reasons. He was punching his fist to the air; the other hand occupied with Bia, while screaming something at them. His words could not reach them as Gamayun was picking up her speed mercilessly. He even forgot that he had been spared from Bia's whimsical torture that she would throw around whenever she was unhappy.

Kurapika had her mouth hung ajar as she stared dumbly at the receding scenery. In no time, the hill and the mansion were out of sight.

"Seems like Shalnark's invention works at all," Kuroro muttered casually. _Since there's no scream of agony coming from there,_ he snickered inwardly.

"Turn around! Turn back!" Kurapika screamed at him.

"Won't do." Kuroro simply refused with soft voice. Despite the howling wind, Kurapika still could hear his words because her head was right next to his as they were practically hugging each other; the result of Kurapika twisting around in his arms and him trying not to let go of her lest she ended up doing a free-falling stunt to the ground miles below.

"YOU—"

_Now, now, sweetheart. Don't get too rough here. First of all, you are hurting my neck by squirming around. Secondly, you may bite your tongue to death if you don't keep your mouth closed,_ Gamayun said with taunting voice, although there was no malice in it.

Assessing the situation, Kurapika knew that the hybrid creature was right. Kuroro was practically sitting on Gamayun's shoulder, supported by the crook of the joints between her sturdy wings and her muscular shoulder. The raven-haired man had one hand clutching a fistful of Gamayun's soft feather while the other hand was securely wrapped around Kurapika's slim waist. Kurapika herself ended up clinging to Kuroro's neck for dear life as Gamayun had rapidly increased her speed and was now darting like airplane across the clear sky.

"You better give me sensible explanation big time later." Kurapika growled with very low voice.

"Sure." Kuroro whispered to her ears as he bent forward to decrease the pressure beating against him. Because of this gesture, Kurapika was completely trapped in his arms. Seeing how compromising their position was, Kurapika could not help but to blush despite the biting cold winter wind of high altitude.

* * *

"GET BACK HERE, DAMMIT! YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO GO NOW! I DIDN'T BRING YOU HERE SO YOU CAN JUST RUN AWAY LIKE THAT, YOU DUNDERHEADS!" The vampire screamed while still punching the empty air fiercely.

Lucian could see that Kurapika was looking that way, but she did not seem to hear his yell. The human-bird hybrid had easily obeyed Kuroro's sudden command to take off because she could see some entertainment coming from that. Lucian, however, found the situation far from amusing

_That stupid feathery creature! Why did she have to listen to Lucifer? Oh, and that conniving bastard! I have yet to receive any news about Lucifer and his broken restrainer and here he is, running around somewhere else as His Highness pleases! That reckless fool!_

To be fair, actually Lucian had no right to call Kuroro a 'reckless fool' because Kuroro himself did not know of the fact that his earring was a restrainer. As such, he took no serious consideration of his broken earring.

"Alas! What should I do? What should I do? What should I DO?" Lucian pulled his hair with one hand in distress. "What should—OUCH!"

Seeing Lucian's antics of pulling his hair, Bia found it entertaining and she began imitating it by pulling the poor vampire's silky jet-black hair with her small hands. As gently as possible, Lucian tried to pry the mute girl's hands off his precious hair (while screaming "Ow! Stop that! You are ruining my ha—ouch! Hands off!"). Bia had such a frail body—for the time being—that Lucian was afraid that if mishandled at the slightest, she might get hurt and consequently he would have to face Kurapika's unforgiving wrath. Even thinking of that could make him shudder as if his spine had turned into ice.

When Bia's hands were successfully detached from his darling hair, Lucian stared into her eyes. They were expressionless, almost like a doll's eyes; only with a tinge of confusion in those bright hazel eyes. Bia did not understand why Lucian was so distressed.

"Say," Lucian sighed as looked into her eyes, "do you think I should tell Anansi about this?"

_About what?_ A voice suddenly rang from nowhere else; making the vampire's heart skipped a precious beat.

So caught off guard Lucian was that he almost jumped out of his skin upon hearing that voice. The reason of his surprise was not merely because there was a voice coming out of nowhere, but more because he knew exactly whose voice it was—the last person he would want to meet right at that moment

"Nothing." Lucian answered with a squeak as he scanned his surrounding wildly, trying to find the source of that familiar voice.

_Oh, really?_ The voice said, completely unconvinced by Lucian's assertion. _Why the nervousness, then?_

"Can't I be nervous now and then?" Lucian said back, and finally he spotted the source of that voice.

The familiar in shape of a falcon that Mihai had lent him; now perching on a branch of the dead tree, had come back with a rider on top of its back. It was no ordinary passenger: a spider as big and fat as a tarantula, only this one was hairless. Fleetingly the spider was almost invisible as its glistening black body seemed to blend with the bird's feathers, but the white crescent-shaped symbol on its body betrayed its presence. Lucian cringed upon seeing the 'vile' creature staring at him with its faceted eyes. While he never hated spiders like Kurapika did—or used to—he had taken deliberate attempt not to meddle with them. He had had quite enough traumatizing experience with spiders, with all due respect to the Solomonarii's boredom.

_Suit yourself. You may stay nervous to your death, for all I care,_ the spider said with slight mocking tone, though it harboured no ill-intention.

Lucian clucked his tongue in mock annoyance. "What are you coming here for, anyway?" He asked waspishly, pretending that he was offended by the spider's words. However, he then realised that he had just uttered the question that he should have avoided at all cost, remembering the event that had just occurred a mere few minutes ago.

_Where is Kuroro?_

Inwardly, Lucian groaned, whined, moaned, prayed—you name it. The dreaded question was finally out, although it was his fault for touching on the subject in the first place. Lucian's jaws were stiff for a moment due to his great reluctance to tell the spider incarnation that Kuroro Lucifer had 'escaped' right under his nose. Bia; clueless about what the conversation was about—not that she cared, though—began staring at Lucian's expression. She cocked her head to one side. With the body language of curiosity, Bia reached out and pinched Lucian's cheek. While Lucian's face was nowhere near adorable-like-a-baby, anyone would be surprised to see how elastic and baby-smooth his skin was. In her 'inquisitiveness', Bia had pulled his cheek so hard it seemed as if she wanted to tear it off the cheekbone.

Of course, it went without saying that Lucian roared in pain.

"_Ce naiba se intimpla cu aceasta fata?_ (what the hell is wrong with this girl)" Lucian whined as he finally managed to get her hand of his now swollen cheek.

_Lucian, you haven't answered me. Where is Kuroro?_ Anansi asked again, though there was a tinge of thinning patience in his distant voice.

"Well…Lucifer is…"

_Be quick, we have no time to lose. I understand that their next destination will be Ryuusei-gai, but right now he MUST NOT get anywhere near Ryuusei-gai,_ Anansi said impatiently.

Lucian's jaws slackened considerably that it seemed to hang loosely; making him look like a retard. His paraffin white complexion turned rather blue and purple and he looked like he could faint anytime like those dainty frail young ladies of aristocrat houses. Apparently, although he was only borrowing a spider's body, Anansi could still sense the despairing aura that the vampire was emitting.

_Don't tell me…_

"They're already on their way there…" Lucian whispered while covering his eyes with one hand. "But Anansi…what will happen if Lucifer reaches the place? Surely he won't die or something like that, right?"

_No, he won't die, that's for sure. But…I can't say if the result will be better than death. _

"You are seriously creeping me out." Lucian said with held breath

_Don't you think that losing yourself is worse than death? For what I know about Kuroro, he is sure to choose death than losing his present self-identity._

_

* * *

_

It was a blush; there was no denying it. It was not due to the heat. It was not due to the adrenaline rush because of the furious flight from Tulcea to Ryuusei-gai. It was only _partially_ due to the embarrassment of falling asleep halfway the journey to Ryuusei-gi. The other half-reason? That would be because she had just inadvertently admitted _out loud_ that it was _nice_ sleeping in his arms.

Kuroro had a very amused smile plastered on his handsome face as he led the party of two toward the direction of Ryuusei-gai's temple from deep within the forest. Behind him was Kurapika whose eyes were downcast as she had not the courage to look at him, lest he turned around and their eyes met. The cause of Kurapika's awkwardness was stemmed the moment the _Halkyónē_ touched down to the ground of Ryuusei-gai's forest with her two passengers tucked safely on her back.

Normally, when they took the humane mode of transportation, it would have perhaps taken a few days to reach Ryuusei-gai. With the privilege of riding a _Halkyónē, _however, the travel-time was reduced significantly to only a meagre 4 hours. Nevertheless, it was enough to charm Kurapika with the spell of drowsiness; not to mention that the air was cold so the drowsy spell was stronger and—truth of all truth—it felt really nice to lean against Kuroro's chest and just enjoyed the express ride. After one and half hour, she was fast asleep with no reservation whatsoever as she leaned her back against Kuroro's chest.

Under normal circumstances, Kuroro would love to tease Kurapika to no end for showing such 'intimacy' by 'accident', however this time he was in no mood to do that. If anything, he was enjoying himself as well. He rested his chin on the crown of her golden hair and deliberately inhaled a whiff of her scent. Absentmindedly, he tightened the hold of his arm around her waist slightly.

Gamayun had then landed in the middle of the forest; near her sister's lair, instead of dropping them in the front door because she did not want to raise commotion among those humans about the appearance of a massive freak-of-nature bird. People of Ryuusei-gai might not be considered as normal people considering their lifestyle and upbringing, but they were still humans.

Even as Gamayun had completely settled herself on the ground low to allow them to get off from her back, Kurapika was still blissfully taking her siesta. Kuroro had then stared at her bemusedly—she was always a light sleeper, as he observed during their journey together years back, except for several very rare occasions. Kuroro called out her name softly in order to rouse her from her sleep, but there was no reaction. He spoke louder, but still there was no response. He tried tugging her sleeve, but the only reaction that he managed to solicit was an incoherent slurry mumbling as Kurapika _snuggled_ closer to him.

_Our young lady there gets too comfortable, huh?_ Gamayun commented as she noticed her passengers not moving from her back.

"I'm afraid so." Kuroro responded with low chuckle of amusement.

Knowing that they had to get off Gamayun's back sooner or later, Kuroro decided that he had to wake her up no matter what. From experience, he knew that Kurapika's skin was quite sensitive and so he pulled back slightly and lowered his face to her neck level. Then, he blew at her nape. The impact was fascinating; she screamed.

She then broke off from Kuroro's loose hold around her and practically jumped from Gamayun's back to the ground while clutching her nape protectively with both hands. Her expression was distinctively that of a flustered person as she looked around in alert. When she had done taking in her surrounding, Kurapika looked at the gargantuan creature before her.

_Good morning, sleeping beauty. Did you enjoy your sleep?_ Gamayun asked teasingly.

"Uh…" Kurapika muttered in embarrassment. "I couldn't help it…"

_Why? Was it so nice to be in his arms?_

"Yeah…" Kurapika answered rather absentmindedly.

After a delayed loading process in her brain, Kurapika then noticed the implication of her affirmation of Gamayun's seemingly innocent inquiry. Hastily she looked and, much to her horror, Kuroro was staring at her with disbelieving yet very much entertained look. He was covering his mouth with one hand; obviously trying to hide the grin that was blooming uncontrollably on his face. A furious shade of crimson then dyed Kurapika's face as her mouth hung ajar with mortification.

_Lucky man, aren't you? Fufufufu… Now that you know it, you ought to hug her more often,_ Gamayun said as she looked at Kuroro with twinkling eyes.

Whether Gamayun was aware of it or not, her carefree comment had only served to deepen Kurapika's blush that her face seemed to be glowing like red neon bulb.

"NO! I—I—it was—" Kurapika stuttered. She intended to correct the mistake, but then again there was no mistake to correct in the first place. She was merely answering Gamayun's question truthfully.

And from then onwards was Kurapika's awkwardness.

They walked in that awkward-filled silence for quite a long time. Kuroro looked around the forest, trying to discern their exact position in the forest. Back then when he was still a youngling under Ishtar's guidance, he had often explored the forest in his boredom but never until that far. Being in the forest once again, Kuroro could not help but to relive his earlier days before the creation of the Genei Ryodan. Inevitably, his thought hovered around the news that his supposedly-dead foster-mother/mentor was still lingering in spirit. Then, he remembered the words that Lucian had once mentioned:

'_Non omnis moriar', I shall not completely die…How fitting._

Kurapika looked around quietly, the embarrassment still tinting her face with flush of crimson, when she spotted something at distance. She squinted to get a clearer outline of it, and then she perceived it as a remnant of battle in the area. Scanning around the surrounding, she managed to spot several others various remnants. There had been a battle there on the ground they were crossing. Looking around with more interest, she then realised that she was familiar with those marks.

There were several trenches on the ground, the results of Ishtar's gigantic spears plunging into them. There were several thin scrapes on the tree trunk, the result of something being wrapped tightly around it. The soil formed large and wide depressions at some place, as if something long and heavy had been dragged along the forest floor. There were some objects embedded on the tree with moss and other creeping plants almost covering them wholly, but nevertheless the shape was still recognisable.

They had arrived in the battlefield between the two of them with Ishtar. Those were the remnants of their battle with Ishtar, before finally she died in Kuroro's hands.

Her embarrassment forgotten, Kurapika looked up and stared at Kuroro's back. She did not know whether he recognised the place or not, but considering that this was Kuroro Lucifer, she assumed that he did recognise the place but chose to keep quiet about it. She wondered how Kuroro was feeling right at that moment; being in the place where he had killed Ishtar and a few days ago he had just heard that her spirit still lingered in this world.

When she first broke the news to Kuroro about Ishtar being Meta's invisible friend, his face had frozen as if it had transformed completely into an impenetrable mask. After that he had rushed out of the room and the next thing she knew Lucian was introducing them to that Gamayun. She had been furious that he had just anyhow dragged her along and travelled to Ryuusei-gai without preparations whatsoever, but right now she was no longer in the mood of interrogating the man. Whatever his reasons were, they ought to be sensible enough—or so she believed. Now that she studied his gait more closely, she realised that although he was close to gliding across the forest floor almost effortlessly, although his hands were in the pockets of his coats, she could feel his body emanating an aura of rigidity. He was tense, and she could feel it.

"How long have you known?" He suddenly asked, breaking Kurapika's concentration.

"Huh?"

"How long have you known about Ishtar?" Kuroro repeated.

Kurapika bit her lower lips. This was not the nicest topic to talk about, but then again this was the forest of Ryuusei-gai; which was equal to Ishtar's home after all.

"Just recently. When I almost died because of Yorn's poison," Kurapika said and she suddenly recalled Yorn's furious face when Silva Zaoldyck had attacked Kurapika back then in Yorkshin City. She was such an interesting character. "I, or rather my spirit, perhaps, reached the border between the dead and the living. Ishtar was there."

"And she told you that she's the one looking after Meta all this while." Kuroro said in a manner that was asking for verification.

Kurapika nodded.

"She sent her regards to you." She said quietly.

"That's an awfully long time to deliver a regard." Kuroro said, somewhat coldly.

"…I'm sorry…"

A few years back, Kurapika perhaps would never think of apologizing to Kuroro with such sincerity in her voice. This time, she did not bother thinking about pride or dignity or the likes. She made a mistake, and so she apologised for it. It was as simple as that.

They continued walking in silence, the topic dropped just as abruptly as it had been brought up. After a few more minutes of walking, they emerged into a clearing with a lake in the middle. They both instantly recognised the lake, because they both spotted a small mound at one edge of the lake—Ishtar's grave.

Wordlessly, they both walked around the lake and stopped right in front of the humble grave. There were several incense sticks stuck on the ground; Hatsubaba's offering whenever she visited the grave. Kurapika knelt in front of the grave and traced the mound lightly with the tip of her fingers. She had not visited the grave even once for the past six years. Kuroro, on the other hand, stood behind her and assumed the identical pose he usually took whenever he was there for his annual grave-visits.

Comfortable silence suddenly descended between them. The crystal-clear water of the lake lapped gently as wind stroked them breezily. After a while, Kuroro turned around on his heels.

"Let's go." He merely said.

Kurapika said nothing as she stood up and dusted her knees. She trailed after Kuroro, who had started walking towards the direction of the temple. When the temple was finally within their sight, Kuroro reduced the pace of his walk until he was walking side-by-side with Kurapika.

"We'll split." He announced to her.

Though he did not elaborate more about that decision, Kurapika understood his reasons. It would be faster to search the entire temple for Meta and Anansi. She planned on using En to make her life easier, and she suspected that he was going to do the same. To show that she conform to that decision, Kurapika nodded in silence. However, she could not deny the fact that she had this nagging instict that Meta was really not in Ryuusei-gai.

She did not suspect that Kuroro actually had another private reason as for why he came up with that decision.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Waaa I'm late again X School's pace is getting faster and more demanding o.O Not much to say, I guess, except that I'm still at loss on how to portray Bia's personality. She really has no personality so far -_- Any suggestions?_

_**Next: **__They were finally in Ryuusei-gai, ready to search for Meta although they had their sensible doubts that Meta might probably not there. What was Kuroro's private reason of wanting them to split up in their search? What was he planning to do in the temple?_


	19. Chapter 17: Ascendancy

_**Disclaimer: **I wish I do..._

_**Story so far: **Both Kuroro and Kurapika had finally reached Ryuusei-gai. How would their search for Meta go? Also, what other motif did Kuroro have in regards of splitting up when searching for Meta?_

_**BIG NOTE: **_"*This means the speech is in Romanian.*"

* * *

**Chapter 17**

_**ASCENDANCY**_

_**

* * *

**_

Suffocating.

That was the best word to describe the place. For abandoned temples, it was no surprise to see outrageously thick layers of dusts covering the entire premise. The spookiest thing about Ryuusei-gai temple was the fact that it had no layers of dusts _at all_. There was not a single source of light, the corridors were empty and dark with dense shadows lurking at every corner and turn of the seemingly endless walkway of the underground temple. The air was dry stale—as opposite to the characteristic damp air of underground passages—yet it was biting cold and utterly odourless. It was so clean to the point that it was almost sterile that it choked the sanity out of her mind.

Gingerly Kurapika ran her fingers across the fragile-looking stone walls of the temple. She shuddered when she felt the cold touch of the bluish-grey stone. They felt sinister.

_This place doesn't make any sense. How can it be so clean when it's been abandoned and uninhabited for years?_ She thought as she raised her arm that was holding a burning torch.

Kuroro and Kurapika went their separate ways before they entered the temple. Seeing that the inside of the temple was pitch-black, Kurapika had decided to pick up a dry thick branch and turned it into a torch. She walked for a few distance until she finally stopped and then extended her En. When she detected not a single living organism in the vicinity, she proceeded further into the bowel of the temple. She felt like she was doing some treasure-hunting in some secret underground ruin that was rife with deadly traps—or at least that was the impression that the place gave her.

For a while she kept repeating the same pattern until she entered a room that was somewhat familiar to her. The room was spacious with translucent curtains of all colours dangling from the high ceiling. The curtains hung motionlessly with no wind to make them dance as how Kurapika remembered it. The cushions and pillows of all sizes and colours were still littering the floor; scattered everywhere. There was a mountain of those cushions in the middle of the room but on closer inspection it looked more like a throne than a mere mountain. Next to it was a lone hookah. In front of that mountain was a gaping hole as if something enormous had been stuck there and wrenched free.

Kurapika remembered that place. It was the place where she and Kuroro usually had an audience with Ishtar whenever they visited the Meteor City. It was in that place when Kurapika first came face-to-face with Ishtar about seven years back. It was in that place when Ishtar had revealed her true nature of a medusa and challenged them to a fight of death.

She approached the depression on the floor and stared at it. The memories of that particular day were replayed in her mind and it was not pleasant at all. She remembered vividly—as if it just happened yesterday—when Kuroro slashed the medusa's throat, when Ishtar was dying in Kuroro's hands, when her body dissolved into dusts, when Kuroro leaned on her shoulder and _crying _silently in the rain. Now they were back there again, but for what?

Searching for a missing child; that would be the most obvious answer. However, Kurapika felt otherwise. Kuroro had a change of demeanour after she told him about Ishtar's spirit lingering around Meta. He had practically rushed Lucian to arrange for transportation from Muntenia to Ryuusei-gai for them. The moment the 'transportation' was ready, he had recklessly 'kidnapped' her along and brought her here. Why the rush? It was too odd.

Suddenly, Kurapika realised that splitting up was not a good idea, even when the rationale was to make the search faster. She had the feeling that Kuroro was not to be left alone at this moment. While Kuroro was not really a suicidal type, Kurapika still remembered that he had a very twisted view about death.

Feeling a nasty knot in her stomach now, Kurapika spun on her heels and rushed out of the room. Being in that room was suddenly too much for her. Her priority for the time being was not to find Meta in that complex—she had a hunch that the boy was not there and a mother's intuition was not to be underestimated—but to find Kuroro Lucifer first.

Her heart hammered loudly in her chest that she thought she could hear her erratic heartbeats. Out of the blue, she had a very bad premonition vis-à-vis Kuroro.

* * *

Two figures were sitting on a rag made of a beast's fur. They were hunching over bundles of shimmering strings, exotic conches and beads, several strips of fine leathers, some dried reeds, and some feathers of various sizes and natural colours. The little boy were stringing together the conches, beads, and feathers into stands of dangling decoration, while the elderly woman gave funny (according to the boy) grunting sounds as she bent the stiff reeds into perfect hoop and covered them tightly with the leathers.

"Remember: luscious dreams pass through the centre hole to the sleeping person. The bad dreams are trapped in the web, where they perish in the light of dawn." The witch-like old woman told him as she handed him the wrapped hoop.

The boy nodded vigorously as he set about completing his task at hand diligently. The plump crone had been teaching him how to create a Dreamcatcher. She had demonstrated how to 'weave' the strings on the hoop to create the spider-web structure of the said item, and now he was applying the method with utmost carefulness as his four-years-old body allowed him. It was needless to say that he had failed countless time, and it went without saying that he kept whining every time the strings went unravelled despite his efforts.

"Say, grandma…" Meta asked with the pout still sitting stubbornly on his mouth, "where's Anansi?"

"He's off somewhere else, dear. He has an urgent errand to run." Hatsubaba said calmly without betraying the anxiety that was gnawing at her heart.

Anansi had not told her the details of the issue, as the spider incarnation had just hinted that he had to go in order to save Kuroro from plunging into complete insanity; before Ishtar's essence overwhelmed him. She was left to look after the blond little boy that was almost the exact copy of a certain Kuruta.

Unbeknownst to Hatsubaba, she was not the only one who was there for Meta. From distance, there were several pairs of eyes that were observing the boy intently.

* * *

He walked through the endless twisting corridors as if he knew the place by heart—which he really did. Although he had not been there for years, his body still remembered. When he was still a little curious scoundrel, he would explore the temple day in and out until he could actually draw a map of the temple if he wished to. Hands in his pockets, Kuroro fixed his dark eyes at the dark passage before him with his jaws set stiff and his countenance devoid of any emotions. Nobody would probably be able to determine the meaning of that particular expression-that-bore-no-emotions-whatsoever.

After a while, he finally stopped before an iron door that was just of standard appearance like any other doors in the temple. However, despite its plain appearance, Kuroro knew what lie behind that door. When he was younger, he spent a great deal of his time inside that chamber that was filled with curious objects of wonders. If Ishtar was present in the room, she would tell him stories about those objects that he found most intriguing. Those days, however, were long gone and they were but distant memories that he could only recall vaguely.

He pushed the slate of iron with one hand—the door had no handle—and the door glided open with the tiniest creaking noise escaping from the hinges. Kuroro then slipped into the darkness of the room without bothering to open the door wide.

The room was pitch-black as if it was the very essence of darkness. The air was even colder and staler than in the corridors outside. Kuroro said nothing but merely stood there unmoving. Again, memories of his childhood were replayed in his head, particularly those featuring this chamber. Brushing those memories aside, Kuroro took in the atmosphere of the room. It was obvious that the chamber had not been lived in for very long time as the room emitted an aura of desolation. However, much to Kuroro's surprise, he detected movements from the dark recess of the corner of the chamber, accompanied with a very faint noise.

Still maintaining his composed face, Kuroro turned to the direction of the faint noises. After a few seconds, his eyes finally adapted to the thick darkness and he started to be able to perceive shapes inside the chambers. Recognising the furniture and the decoration in the room—which was set exactly as how he remembered it since the last time he was there—he quickly spotted the source of the noises and movements. His eyes widened ever so slightly as he recognised it.

"Basille," he stated in husky voice; half disbelieving his eyes.

The said snake was indeed there, twisting her body into a loose coil that spoke only of mind-numbing loneliness. Perhaps recognising Kuroro's voice, Basille started to make more movements. This time, she extracted her head from among the coil of her massive body and soon enough it was hovering above the ground somewhat lethargically. She moved sluggishly as if she was terribly sleepy, or even on drugs.

Kuroro found himself standing rigidly. He had not expected the snake to be there. To tell the truth, he had not even remotely remembered about the snake at all. He had thought that since the snake's mistress; Ishtar, was dead, the snake would go off somewhere, presumably into the deeper part of the forest beyond the temple. Who would have thought that the snake would faithfully stay in her mistress' chamber for years? It was as if the snake was waiting for her mistress' return, or perhaps she was intending to die in her mistress' bedroom.

"Basille?" Kuroro called out at the snake.

A pair of ruby eyes glittered in the darkness, flashing a distraught light at the raven-haired man. Those eyes stared at him in what seemed like eternity, casting a look of longing at him to the point that Kuroro thought he saw hunger in those gleaming orbs. Kuroro narrowed his eyes at this. Though deadly, Basille had always been docile and even shy. He had only witnessed her aggressiveness once; when one of the Elders had threatened Ishtar if she did not comply with his worthless idea. In the end, the fool ended up becoming a stone statue as he received the basilisk's lethal glare.

…_teeeeerrsss…_

Basille inched forward. Kuroro remained silent and unmoving. He had to strain his hearing to be able to catch the snake's hiss.

…_young masteeeeeerssssss…_ the basilisk whispered, her hiss bore certain agony in it. _Retuuurrrnnssss…_

"This is only a brief visit, Basille." Kuroro said, though he doubted that the basilisk was sane enough to understand his words. For some reason, he had a hunch that the creature was being driven to the edge of her sanity.

_Retuuurrnnssss…to reignnnsss…_

Basille inched closer towards Kuroro, and the latter still refused to budge. Kuroro stared into those red eyes; now he could perceive madness in that pair of red gems. The closer she was to Kuroro, the wilder the look her eyes gave off. He narrowed his eyes as he digested the meaning of her words. Return to reign? That old snake could not be….

"Basille, I don't—"

_I don't intend to continue Ishtar's legacy_, was what Kuroro had intended to say. However, before Kuroro could finish his sentence, a sharp pang of unrivalled agony assaulted his head. Oddly, it was only the right side of his head that was throbbing in pain. His right eye seemed to be burning, and his muscles around his right face convoluted uncontrollably, as if he had just experienced an episode of seizure. The pain was so overwhelming that Kuroro was instantly brought down to his knees.

He clutched the right side of his face; a hiss escaped his mouth as he endured the torture. His whole body started to shake as if he was being exposed to extreme cold, yet his right eye felt as if it was turning into magma. He thought he was going blind, but when he attempted to look at Basille, amidst the pain he managed to realise that his vision had been severely altered—everything did not seem to have definite shape and form, myriads of colours swirled around the room and forming vortexes at certain places. It was an overwhelming scene; so bilious that he was compelled to shut his eyes tight.

Kuroro doubled over as the pain was intensifying. He was almost certain that his right eye was going to be blind due to the unbearable heat it was emanating. The right side of his skull felt like it was going to split anytime soon. Finally, Kuroro collapsed onto the cold stone floor of the room while still clutching his face.

"KURORO!" A voice that sounded so clear rang in his ears, and soon enough there was a pair of cool hands touching his forearm. "Kuroro! What's wrong?"

It was strange to hear such intense agitation and anxiety in that familiar voice, since he rarely heard it whenever she talked to him. Nevertheless, he felt a sense of relief when he felt the hands on him and heard her voice nearby. A feeling of calmness suddenly washed over him, mitigating the agony and soothing him. There was a voice at the back of his head, whispering:

_If she's here, then it'll be alright…_

_

* * *

_

Kurapika thought she was about to get a heart-attack. Not only that for every second that passed her uneasiness grew like Jack's beanstalk, but she also saw the onyx on her silver ring glowing red. Following her intuition, she took the path where the red glowed grew intense, as she had the feeling that Kuroro would be there. At one particular stretching dark corridor, she had practically run along the passage while glancing at the numerous doors until she finally spotted a door that was slightly ajar. Pushing open the door and raising her torch high, she straight away noticed the squirming body sprawled on the floor.

Intuitively dropping the torch to the floor—which thankfully was not carpeted—Kurapika crouched over the figure and touched the forearm. She was shocked to feel the intense heat emanating from his body. Panic starting to rise to her head, Kurapika scrambled to make him lie on his back and examined his face. She held her breath as she saw the fine bluish lines of his veins protruding grotesquely on the right side of his face. The lines were most obvious around his eyes. Kurapika touched his forehead and was mortified by the intensity of his fever. He was not even sweating!

"Kuroro? Kuroro? Can you hear me?" Kurapika asked her with squeaky voice, much like a frightened mouse.

Kuroro's response was only a sharp intake of deep breath and no words. His body had stopped trembling, yet now he felt supremely cold in the inside while his skin felt burning on the outside. The moment he heard Kurapika calling his name, the pain in his head and the burning sensation in his eyes had lessened significantly. However, he felt so extremely exhausted that it took almost all he had to crack open his eyes and gazed at Kurapika.

As his eyes met with Kurapika's, Kurapika held her breath. Kuroro's left eye seemed normal, but his right one was completely black including the sclera. That eye reminded her of Ishtar's True Vision eye; the one that was always concealed underneath her curtain of curly black hair.

What Kuroro saw was not Kurapika—or rather, not only the physical her but with some other additions. For some reason, she was engulfed in grey colour, with depressing purple underlying colour. He could also recognise some emotions swirling around her as if they were mere words written on blank paper.

_What's wrong? What happened? Don't die. Don't leave me alone. What am I supposed to do? Oh God, don't take him away from me._

Those were the words that he managed to perceive despite his dwindling consciousness. Feeling that he should respond to her lest she did something reckless out of her panic, Kuroro whispered a word "…cold…"

It was a strange response, considering that his main issue was the brain-numbing pain in his head and eyes. However, that word was really the first thing that came to his mind. Kurapika licked her parched-dry lips nervously. Of course he would be feeling cold, considering the degree of his fever. Not knowing what else she was supposed to do, she gathered Kuroro's head in her arms and cradled it close to her bosom. She could feel him relaxing slightly while in her arms and he even nuzzled closer to her as if craving for the warmth that her body emanated, though his breathing was still erratic.

Her mind grew numb and she did not know what to think. She looked around the dark chamber, only to find herself staring at Basille's eyes. Kurapika had not even noticed her presence before. The basilisk had not moved an inch from her last post and there was a wild look in those ruby eyes, but Kurapika could see the fragility in her being. It was as if she was already standing on her last leg.

"B, b, Basille?" Kurapika stuttered. "W, what happened here? What's wrong with him?" She asked the basilisk desperately.

There was a glint in those ruby eyes.

_Retuuurnsssss…to reiiignssss…_

Kurapika opened her mouth but no words came out. She knew what the snake was talking about—the issue of Ishtar's legacy. The Elders demanded that Kuroro took over Ishtar's role but he had refused. Could it be that Basille had chosen him as Ishtar's legible successor as well? But what did that have to do with Kuroro's condition? In the confusion, Kurapika's heart beat so fast that she thought she would not be able to cope up with her own heartbeats.

"Kurapika." A steely voice said behind her.

With a sharp gaze, Kurapika turned her head around and saw an imposing figure standing by the doorway. The pathetic light that the dying torch could spill managed to reveal the identity of the person as it provided dim illumination at his face. When she saw that grim visage and the long unbound platinum gold hair, Kurapika saw hope.

"Anansi! Kuroro—"

"I know," was Anansi's curt words as he interjected Kurapika's panicky voice.

The spider incarnation knelt before her and reached out to touch Kuroro's left ear. He took off the replica earring while muttering "cheap fake" with a degree of annoyance, and then he covered Kuroro's ear with his hand and muttered something under his breath. When he turned silent again and drew back his hand, a familiar blue globular earring was attached to Kuroro's ear. In an instant, Kuroro's breathing turned even and his face no longer bore the pained expression.

Kurapika heaved a heavy sight of relief as she observed the significant change. She looked up to stare at Anansi. Her expression spoke of two things: thank you, but please tell me what's going on here. Anansi studied her expression and searched into her aquamarine eyes.

"This is Ishtar's private bedchamber. In here, the remnants of her existence were the strongest. With him lacking one layer of protection, he is quite vulnerable here. If you know what I mean."

"I do." Kurapika responded quickly. "Lucian told me about his earrings."

"I see." Anansi murmured vaguely as he returned his attention to his surrogate son. His face had assumed a calm expression, and the frowns had almost ceased.

"What about Basille? Why…"

"Basille is dying. You notice that, don't you?" It was not a confirmation or anything; it was more like a statement.

Kurapika swallowed hard and nodded. She recognised that wild look in the basilisk's eyes—it was a look that was born out of desperation and despair. What the snake was despairing about, Kurapika had no clue whatsoever. However, at the same time she could sense that the basilisk was fighting to endure life until the very last, as if she was waiting for something to happen first before she could depart from this world peacefully. Kurapika deduced that it had something to do with Ishtar's legacy and Kuroro.

Little did she know that Basille and Ishtar shared the same life force though they had different soul. Though Ishtar was dead, her spirit would not fully die as long as Basille still lived. However, her death also affected Basille's life tremendously as her life was shaved away at a very fast pace. It was if her soul was trying to catch up with Ishtar's soul. When the remaining life force had been expired, only then both souls would depart from the material world—though the destination would remain a question.

"Where's Meta?" Kurapika suddenly asked, her tone rose once more. Anansi almost winced at this, but said nothing regarding the little boy.

"Kurapika." Anansi said with soft voice that sounded almost apologetic. "I will need you to sleep for a while. If you don't mind…"

Before even waiting for her answer, Anansi swiftly lifted up his hand and touched Kurapika's shoulder with one finger. The tip of this particular finger had morphed into the tip of a spider's leg as it embedded itself shallowly into Kurapika's flesh. The only thing that Kurapika felt was a little prick on her shoulder, and the next thing she was out cold in Anansi's arm. After laying her gently on the hard stone floor, Anansi focused himself with Kuroro. He was still trapped in Kurapika's arms, though they had gone limp the moment he injected her with a kind of sleeping drug.

"Kuroro." Anansi called out at him softly after a few minutes had passed.

Several seconds passed, until finally a soft groan escaped from Kuroro's lips. Fluttering open his eyes, Kuroro looked around with a dazed expression before his dark eyes were finally focused on Anansi. He sat up rather groggily; his head still throbbing slightly, his right eye was still very warm, and his fever still persisted. After rubbing his still-sore right eye, he noticed the familiar weight and sensation on his right ear.

"I gave you a new one." Anansi told him as-a-matter-of-factly.

"What's the significance of these earrings?" Kuroro asked him rather waspishly.

"They are your restrainers." Anansi said deadpan. "They have always been your restrainers since the beginning."

Kuroro glared at Anansi but said nothing. Somehow, he could take the fact fairly well and it even made perfect sense to him; the reason why Anansi put something on him that he could not take off on his own. If he had told him since the beginning that it was his restrainers, he would have refused to wear them at all.

"Am I that weak?" Kuroro muttered slight scoff in his voice.

"No, it's mostly this place's fault." Anansi said while shaking his head in a very pensive manner.

"Because this was Ishtar's room?"

"Because this temple was Ishtar's home."

Kuroro narrowed his eyes in displeasure at this notion. Nevertheless, he said nothing in return. Instead, he turned to look at Kurapika who was blissfully sleeping on the floor. He then gave a questioning stare at Anansi, no doubt demanding to know what exactly he had done to Kurapika to knock her out. Anansi refused to answer him though, and instead questioned him.

"How far has Ishtar's blood affected you?" Anansi asked with quiet voice.

Kuroro stared to the space as he tried to recall the recent events after his earring had broken. He noticed one peculiarity about him.

"I can tell lies now." Now he understood why he had been feeling those tingling sensation whenever someone lied to him. It was inherited from Ishtar; her True Vision had always been her greatest weapon and so it would be no wonder if that particular aspect was the first one to be transferred to him.

"I see…" Anansi nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid that it will be a permanent ability to you now. I can't say whether it'll be an inconvenience or not—it will be up to you—but I'm pretty confident to say that you won't develop any other ability that is related to Ishtar as long as your earrings are intact."

Kuroro said nothing at this. Whether it would be an inconvenience or not? Kuroro scoffed at that degrading notion. No matter the odds, he would turn that ability to his benefits and advantage. He would make it a convenience. After seeing that resolution in Kuroro's dark eyes, Anansi felt that he ought to step forward to start on a new topic that was actually the most important of all.

"Listen, Kuroro, there is something you must know. Ishtar had decided not to tell you since she deemed it unimportant, but I feel otherwise."

The raven-haired man raised an eyebrow. He had a suspicion that whatever it was that Anansi was going to tell him, there was no way that it was going to be anything pleasant. Anansi was always a joking fool around him, with the exception when he was dealing with serious issues. If Anansi did not utter any of those irritating exclamations that was characteristic of a man with son-complex, it could only mean that he was dead serious. So far, Anansi was in his serious persona. Kuroro knew better than to dismiss his words at this point of time.

"Which is?"

* * *

He straightened up his body and he could hear the onslaught of cracking sounds coming from his lower back. His whole body was sore, and his head was throbbing like there was no tomorrow. He vaguely wondered if this was what mothers usually experienced during the period of child-rearing. If that was the case, then those mothers deserved his eternal sympathy and respect. He had no idea that looking after a child could be so taxing. It was even a more daunting prospect considering that this particular child that he was looking after was even easier to handle than normal children, or so he was told by Kurapika once.

Lucian sighed heavily as he gazed at the sleeping face of the white-haired girl tucked in the bed. Since she was rendered incapable of using her Nen, it became easy to handle the mute girl. First of all, she did not whine like all those terrible brats. Second, she was quiet and obedient (at least to him). Third, she did not go around wreaking havoc in his lab when he put her there since he had works to do. The only setback of having to look after her was that she stared unnervingly like she was going to peel him layers by layers—like he was an onion—to study his innards.

Sitting down on a nearby chair, Lucian's thought drifted to a conversation he had with his father before he returned to him mansion in Tulcea. It was a very disconcerting conversation, considering the content and context of it.

"*_This Kuroro Lucifer. Describe him to me.*" _

"*_He is aloof and cold. That is the first and forever impression I ever have about him. He has no qualms in calling me names and putting me in a very embarrassing situation and seems to be enjoying every last bit of it, and he—*"_

"*_Physical appearance, Lucian.*" _

"*_Oh, well…*" And so Lucian described Kuroro's physical appearance._

"*_A cross-shape birthmark on his forehead, you said?*"_

"*_Yeah. An odd one, no less. Very symmetrical and neat you'll think it's a tattoo.*"_

"*_He is a Solomonar.*"_

"*_No way.*"_

"*_Or at the very least, a descendant. It is undeniable that he has the blood of a Solomonar. That birthmark is the proof.*"_

At that time, Lucian had been adamant to counter-argue his father's assertion, but the more he thought of it, the more the whole thing made sense. The Solomonarii were not supernatural creatures themselves, but more like humans who had either learned or were born with the gift. Children who were destined to become a Solomonar had a birthmark on them, unique for each different individual. Kuroro Lucifer's birthmark was undeniable very extraordinary among humans as it had a very definite and intricate shape.

Kuroro did tell Lucian once before about his parents and their tragic end when he was only four-years-old. Considering that his mother seemed to be at peace with Kuroro's peculiar birthmark and his strangeness, it would make perfect sense that the mother knew of her unusual heritage. Her ancestor might be a Solomonar who fled the country centuries back when there was a civil war. Perhaps, Ishtar instantaneous attraction to Kuroro was also born of her recognition, vis-à-vis her True Vision, of his natural affinity with the supernatural.

In the first place, that might be the reason why he kept running into supernatural and mythical creatures during their journeys—and why he got along so well with a vampire like him. Lucian had to confess that he had never had any close human friends before Kuroro Lucifer.

Well, whatever it was—whether Kuroro was a descendant of a Solomonar or whatever else—this tid-bit did not really matter to Lucian; him being a vampire, after all. However, his concern was whether this piece of fact would make a whole lot of difference to Kurapika or not.

* * *

She stirred up groggily as she felt terribly lightheaded as if she had been suffering from a severe case of low-blood pressure. Sluggishly she pried open her eyes, but everything was blurry and dark. She shut close her eyes again and rubbed them to clear the spell of sleepiness from her seemingly-leaden eyelids. She rolled to her back and heard the crisp sound of bed sheet beneath her. This time, she frowned. She did not remember sleeping on a mattress before. If anything, she did not quite recall the last thing she did before she slept.

_When did I even sleep?_ She asked herself in confusion.

Rummaging through her brains, she vaguely remembered running in a dark corridor. She remembered a pair of ruby eyes, she remembered the burning sensation of a body in her arms, she remembered the prick on her shoulders…

With a sharp gasp, Kurapika sprung upright on the bed. Frantically she looked around the room, but she found herself staring at a familiar room; the bed, the shelves of books, the doors, the floors. She had been in this place before, a few years back. She had slept on that bed before.

It was Kuroro's personal quarter in Ryuusei-gai.

She heaved a sigh of relief, but she did not feel at ease yet—not until she found Kuroro. He had a nasty fever the last time she checked, and she was pretty sure that fever did not go away that fast. Judging from the colour of the dark sky that she saw through the window, she estimated that she had been unconscious for at least half a day ("Damn that Anansi. I'm so going to make him pay for this.").

With calmer mind, Kurapika scanned the room again briefly; it was dark and dim as the light was off. This time, her eyes stopped when they came across the door that led to Kuroro's private library. The door was closed, but Kurapika knew that the man inside there. Slowly as if to avoid making any sounds, Kurapika got off the bed and almost tip-toed her way to that door. When she was right in front of the door, she raised her hand with the intention of knocking at it, but suddenly she felt that it would be unnecessary. Somehow, she knew that Kuroro knew that she was standing there. Kurapika then reached for the doorknob and opened the door.

The door moved soundlessly and weak light spilled from the library. Without even needing to scan the room, Kurapika right away spotted Kuroro. He was sitting on the floor at the furthest end of the room, with mountains of book scattered around him. His head was bowed low and his bangs obscured his face as light hardly reached that corner where he was sitting. Gingerly, Kurapika stepped into the messy library and walked towards Kuroro. She took care not to step on any of those precious books but at the same time she could not help but to wonder how the library could get into such a messy state. The last time she had been there, the place was astoundingly neat and orderly. This time it looked as if a storm had just hit the room—well, perhaps a storm in the form of a man.

"Kuroro?" Kurapika called out to him with unsure voice. Somehow, she could sense that he was in the stay-away-from-me mood but she herself felt the urge to check on him; for one reason and another. He looked dishevelled and was a mess. His shirt clung loosely on his body and it was tucked out of his pants. His first two buttons were loose, as if he had unbuttoned them in frustration.

Kuroro did not answer her. He did not even show any indication of him noticing Kurapika's presence at all. For a split second Kurapika suspected that he had fallen asleep, but she knew better. Ignoring the growing discomfort, Kurapika marched her way to the raven-haired man.

"Kurapika," he suddenly said in a husky yet firm voice. Kurapika froze in her way. "Wait for me outside."

His voice sounded as if it was slicing the suffocating silence, and Kurapika knew that it would be wise for her not to be rebellious now and simply complied with his demand. Wordlessly, Kurapika retreated from the room, closing the door behind her with an inaudible click. With a soft sigh, Kurapika went to the window without bothering to turn on the light. She opened the window and breathed in the cold air of night. The air felt dusty and dry, just as one would expect from a lone city standing in the middle of a desert. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the window sill. She looked down and spied on the streets of Ryuusei-gai.

The night life of the Meteor City was almost of a 180 degree difference with the day life. The streets were completely abandoned, and the only activity going on was the quiet shuffling in the Scavenger's Ground—the mountain of rubbish where the outside world dumped their 'leftovers' for the people of Ryuusei-gai. The Scavenger's Ground was never quiet—it was almost filled with activities as the people literally dug their living from that place.

Kurapika stared absent-mindedly at the borderless horizon of the night desert of Ryuusei-gai. At the moment, her brains seemed to refuse to function normally and she could not think straight. She felt confused and disoriented. She could not think properly.

Her absentmindedness was cut short when she heard the soft clicking sound of a door being closed. She spun around and saw Kuroro stalking into the bedroom. He headed straight to bed and sat on it with his back leaned against the wall. There were no words exchanged between them, but Kurapika knew that he was waiting for her to approach him. So she did just that—after she closed the window first.

"You are still having fever." She stated quietly as she sat next to him. She could practically feel the fever radiating from him.

Kuroro did not respond to this. Silence descended among them, but it was tinged with patience. Kurapika waited patiently until Kuroro spoke whatever was in his mind—he had told her to wait for him outside, meaning that he had something to tell her.

"Have you heard of the Solomonar?" Kuroro finally said; or rather asked, with low voice.

Kurapika stared at him for a while, wondering where the direction of the conversation would be.

"No." She said at last.

"A pity." Kuroro remarked with dry voice, but nevertheless he explained to Kurapika briefly about the Solomonarii—about everything that he had managed to find out about them after digging for information from his library. When he was finished, Kurapika stared at him with questioning eyes.

"The point is?" She asked with a frown.

For the first time since Kurapika woke up, Kuroro looked up and stared right into her eyes. They were the same abysmal obsidian eyes that seemed to suck everything into that endless darkness. They held the same intensity as whenever he looked at her right in the eyes. This time, however, they bore a hint of kindling emotion—one that eluded Kurapika's recognition. She had never seen that emotion in his eyes before.

"I am a descendant of a Solomonar." Kuroro finally said. There was no hesitance in his voice; no reluctance whatsoever.

Although Kuroro had no family tree chart for him to consult about his line of ancestry, he had done a thorough research about the Solomonarii from the extensive collection of his private library. With cold logic he had reflected on his life thus far; recalling every experience he had and cross-referencing them with whatever information and facts he managed to extract from the books. It was the conclusion, it was the truth. The birthmark on his forehead was the undeniable proof of his heritage.

Kurapika, upon hearing this declaration, froze. Her mind grew numb and she could not think at all. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth was slightly parted.

"So my father's accusation of me being a demon child is not undue or baseless after all," he said while laughing.

Kurapika cringed as she heard his laugh. It sounded hollow yet dryly amused—it was an out-of-place kind of laugh. It did not seem a forced one, and yet it sounded so unnatural.

"You think this situation is funny." Her statement was more like a question.

"Well," he said, still half-laughing, "I have always known that I am by no means an average person, even among Nen-users. But this…" Kuroro stopped, all laughter and amusement dropped from his countenance and he turned to regard Kurapika with a serious gaze. "What do you think?"

Kurapika took her time before finally answering while looking straight into his dark eyes:

"Of your heritage? It doesn't matter."

It was a truth. After all that had happened, this was hardly something too shocking or too hard to digest. On top of everything, he was the father of Meta. It was safe to assume that the same blood of the Solomonar ran in Meta's veins as well, though the extent was still questionable. It was something that could not be changed, and so it mattered little. She would learn of whatever the Solomonarii were, and she would live with it.

Upon hearing her words, there was something akin to relief flashing athwart Kuroro's dark eyes. More so when he did not feel the tingling sensation that he would experience every time he detected lies. She was not lying.

"What matters then?" He asked softly.

"If you lose to Ishtar, if you lose yourself," Kurapika said slowly while clenching her fists, articulating every word as she meant each one of them, "I will tell Meta that his father is dead, and then I will hunt you down and kill you personally."

"Just like the old days," Kuroro mused with a fleeting smile of satisfaction, and said approvingly: "Sounds good."

Cold-blooded as it might sound, it was the only thing closest to a consoling promise that Kurapika could offer to Kuroro. It was like a reassurance. To say the truth, what mattered the most to Kurapika was that man as Kuroro Lucifer and nobody else; Kuroro Lucifer the heartless man, Kuroro Lucifer who dominated her world; Kuroro Lucifer who was the father of her only son. If that person disappeared and another emerged within the same body, she would rather destroy the body than to let the reminder of Kuroro Lucifer she knew wandered the world.

Kuroro ducked his head once more and silence engulfed the room again. Kurapika stared at Kuroro, uncertain on what to do or what to think or what to feel. To her eyes, it seemed that the man before her was quite broken when confronted by this fact. It was not something that she could see often, but she did not like seeing it. It put her on the edge. Then again, if she was in his shoe, she would probably go into denial spur first instead of accepting it like he did.

"Hey…" She whispered, breaking the silence. "You said it yourself that you will fight fate when there is something worth fighting for."

"…I did say so." Kuroro muttered.

He heard rustling of bed sheet being disturbed by some movements and the next thing he knew, he felt a cold touch on his forehead. When Kuroro looked up, Kurapika was on her knees beside him and her hand was brushing aside the strands of hair that were obscuring his birthmark.

"I believe the same."

Her whisper; said as she was looking at the birthmark, contained a degree of resolution and Kuroro understood the implication. A thin smile bloomed on his pale fact; first it had been him who declared that, and now her. So they were even now.

Kuroro immediately reached out to her and pulled her towards him by her waist. Kurapika gave a strangled gasp as she was suddenly yanked towards him and ended up having a pair of arm encircled around her waist. Kuroro buried his face on the crook of her shoulder. Kurapika could feel the fever distinctly from the skin contact, but she did not feel the least uncomfortable with it. If anything, she leaned towards him and rested her cheek against the side of his head, burying her face in the mop of his black hair.

They stayed like that for a while; with Kurapika ended up sitting on his lap. The dim light of dusk had departed from the room as the night took over the world. The light in the room was not turned on, and so it was getting almost pitch black. The air was getting colder as time passed by; fortunately Kurapika had closed the window as the cold night in Ryuusei-gai could be unbearable sometimes.

"Stay with me," whispered Kuroro, shattering the silence.

Though he was undeniably strong in mental and body, he was still a human. Right at the moment, his demeanour was as if saying that he was clinging to Kurapika for his sanity. Something touched Kurapika's heart as she heard these words, but she did not show it—if anything, it made her want to cry but there was no way she was going to cry in front of him. Nevertheless, she closed her eyes and revelled on those words and their meaning, before she spoke up with forced severity:

"Said the man who took everything away from me; who massacred my tribe for their priced eyes and made me go on a wild-goose chase after his gang."

"You are still not over that, are you?" Kuroro asked with a degree of annoyance in his voice, but he nuzzled his face further towards her neck.

Kurapika chuckled, amused by his slight irritation.

"A crime may be forgiven, but not forgotten."

"Then I take it that you have forgiven me."

Kurapika did not refute that point because there was truth in it. Had Kuroro not massacred her clan and drove her into the path of vendetta, she would not have thought of becoming a Hunter, she would not have gone for the Hunters Examination, she would not have met Gon and Killua and Leorio, she would not have learned as much, she would not have seen so much of the world and the nuances of its true faces. Images of Meta flashed in her mind; together with her other three best friends, and also Senritsu and Bashou, and then Fino, and so many more. Had she remained in the safe comfort of her village deep in the Rukuso mountain, she would not have learned how to treasure her friends as much as she did now.

_I would have been a very ignorant spoiled girl,_ Kurapika thought. She was grateful, despite the hefty price at the very beginning.

Kuroro drew back and stared straight into her eyes. His face had not shown any traces of the doubts and conflicts that had haunted him minutes before.

"What was yours that I have taken from you will be yours again," he said in a low whisper.

"It won't be the same," she responded while her eyes were searching into his eyes.

"Things are never the same. The only constant thing in this world is change itself," he said while putting one hand on Kurapika's nape and pulled her closer towards him.

"How cliché," Kurapika whispered to him with humour in her voice; their noses almost touching each other.

"It's a fact," he breathed to her mouth, and then closed the remaining scanty gap between their mouths.

At first it was a chaste, gentle kiss. As time passed by, the kiss grew intense as they both clung to each other's body tightly as if their lives depended on it. With a slight twist from Kuroro's body, they both fell to the bed such that Kurapika was lying on her back with Kuroro on top of her. When Kuroro finally broke the passionate kiss, they both gasped for the blessed air. The dark-eyed man then bent down and whispered something to her ears, almost in a drunken manner.

"Are you rambling in your fever?" Kurapika asked in a gasp, staring at him with disbelief after he pulled back.

Kuroro chuckled in amusement at her response.

"Perhaps yes, perhaps not."

Perhaps he really was intoxicated at that moment, but it did not matter. Kuroro bent down again and put soft feather-light kisses on Kurapika's neck, making her shudder in pleasure. His hand went up to her blouse and roughly pulled them; uncaring that he had ruined the good blouse. At the same time, Kurapika's hands moved on their own without her instructing them consciously. Her hands unbuttoned the rest of his shirt and stole in to caress his chest skin. His muscles were taut and firm in her touch, and she liked the feel of it. Kurapika held her breath as she felt him kissing her chest, trailing down from her clavicle to her sternum.

"Then I hope it's not the fever," she managed to whisper huskily with held breath.

She could feel him smile against her skin, and it made her shudder. Her skin had always been sensitive. The skin of her face, hands, and legs had been calloused due to exposure to countless battles and fights, but the skin underneath her garments were different. They were still in their pristine condition; soft and sensitive. For every time Kuroro bit lightly on the skin, a very obvious mark was left there.

Soon enough, their garments were discarded onto the floor thoughtlessly, leaving them only with exposed skins. Skin collided with skin, body exploring each other's body, and they both experienced a kind of gratification that they had encountered only once before: in the night five years ago. They were engulfed in a sense of belonging and security, as if they were born as one being before. It might be accredited to the primal instinct since the age of the ancestors that resided prevailingly within all humans.

Kuroro landed a gentle kiss on her flat stomach—on the skin just above her womb. It was a gesture of gratitude from him. The thought of having a real family—of having a wife and children—had never occurred to him before. The concept of a family had been an alien one to him, and only recently that he had begun to understand it. Here was the woman who had borne him a son, and she was perhaps the only one who would be willing to keep a child who inherited his bad blood—the blood of a heinous criminal, as well as the blood of a monster.

At this, a few pearly drops of tears escaped from Kurapika's eyes without her knowing why it happened. A soft sob even escaped from her lips. Hearing it, Kuroro brought himself face-to-face with Kurapika. He was greeted by the brilliant illumination of her Scarlet Eyes that were brimming with emotions. Her eyes were glassy from the effect of her tears that were pooling in her eyes. Kuroro bent down and kissed both eyes, before he sealed her lips with his once more.

As he penetrated deep within her, she let out a gasp and threw back her head. Her back was arched, and she clung to him with both arms as she was washed with the unearthly pleasure. She raked her fingernails against his skin; heightening his awareness of the myriad of sensations. Her fingers found the old scar that embellished both his abdomen and his back—a scar left by Ishtar by accident. Her palms themselves bore scars that he left on her. As their scars came into contact, somehow they felt even more connected than before.

The room was dark, with light coming occasionally from Kurapika's blazing Scarlet Eyes. The only sounds that could be heard came from the pair who was immensely engaged in their dance of passion. So many things had transpired between them, so many changes had occurred around them and within them. They breathed each other's life into the other. They held each other in their arms, as if afraid that once one let go of their holds, the other would disappear like a transient dream. Their bodies were pressed so closely together that they seemed to fuse into one.

Given their conditions, perhaps the words that Kuroro had whispered to Kurapika held a certain absolute truth that was only applicable to them:

_I can't live without you…_

_

* * *

_

_**Author's Note: **__Though I have always declared myself a not-romantic-person-AT-ALL, I couldn't help but to write this kind of story (referring to the last bit of this chapter). Does this make me a hypocrite? O.o I'm afraid of it getting too mushy and overly romantic, but is it?_

_I personally love the part when Kuroro kissed Kurapika's stomach in his gratitude towards her XD Sorry if there aren't too many elaborations but I just couldn't make myself to write it -_- Anyway, with Kuroro now being a descendant of a Solomonar in this fic, I think my imagination is running WAY too wild =P_

_**Next: **__Their journey to Ryuusei-gai to find Meta ended up with the discovery of Kuroro's uncanny heritage. Kurapika seemed to accept it readily, but these changes and development would definitely affect their lives. How would things go from now on then? Also, while Anansi was away, some unknown entities seemed to have their eyes set on Meta despite Hatsubaba's presence._


	20. Chapter 18: Amalgamation

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own HunterxHunter (sadly…)_

_**Story so far:**__ Despite the revelation of Kuroro's heritage, things did not seem to go so bad, seeing that Kurapika did not seem to mind (things were already so hectic that one additional oddity in her life would not really make a difference) In fact, they seemed to have broken through a certain level in their strange relationship. Would it just stop there? It did not seem so._

* * *

**Chapter 18**

_**AMALGAMATION**_

* * *

"Who's there?"

Hatsubaba's voice was nearing hostile, and she shielded the little blond boy behind her with her broad body. Her face donned a fierce look that resembled a furious cat mother who was defending her kitten—or perhaps cat grandmother defending her grand-kitten. Her sharp eyes were trained to a particular spot; trying to penetrate the darkness of the dense grove that surrounded their little picnic site. The incomplete Dreamcatchers were abandoned on the ground and a head peeked from behind the witch-like old hag's hunched shoulder. There was only curiosity in his baby-like face, and not a single trace of fear. He clung to her shoulder and asked innocently:

"Why are you so angry?"

"I'm not angry, dear, and keep behind me. There are some strangers there." Hatsubaba said as softly as possible, but there was still the underlying growl in her voice.

"But grandma," Meta continued with his huge eyes staring at Hatsubaba's strained expression, "_we_ are the strangers in this place."

Hatsubaba felt like smacking her forehead. This boy was so much like his father—so smart-mouthed even at such young age.

"That is not the point, Meta."

"Also," he ignored the elder's impatient voice, "they don't mean any harms."

This caused the witch-doctor to frown and turn to regard the boy with measuring glance. Her face spoke: "How do you know?" At this, Meta grinned broadly but said nothing. He had promised Ishtar he would not talk or hint about her to anyone except when she approved. So far, Ishtar had said nothing about Hatsubaba so the little boy assumed that he should not talk about her to the elderly woman. Hatsubaba's frown deepened but her attention at the boy did not last long as Meta suddenly tapped her shoulders vigorously and pointed at the direction which Hatsubaba had been glaring at earlier.

"Look, look! There are people coming!" He said excitedly. He was getting bored playing with the old lady only. The more the merrier, he believed—as taught by Gon.

Hatsubaba quickly spun on her heels and glared at whoever was approaching them. It turned out that a man was walking their way. He was tall and skinny; even skinnier than Anansi was, only with slightly darker skin tone. His hair was a mass of coal-black hair that curled outrageously. Under the blazing sunlight, his golden accessories glimmered luxuriously. He adorned huge golden circular earrings; up to five on each ear, with thick rings covering his entire neck. He wore animal skin around his hip, and a piece of cloth with tribal pattern on it draped across his narrow shoulders. There were faint permanent patterns all over his body; each bearing a certain meaning. His face was especially decorated in such way that he looked more like a tribal warrior than anything else.

"Woah, woah, chill, old lady. Don't go around throwing murderous glares at passer-bys." The man said with a huge grin athwart his face.

At one glance, even a blind man can see that the man had a very cheerful disposition. He even had the air of a troublemaker with his ever-present foolish grin—very much different from Anansi's natural grim visage. His gait was easy and casual, as if he had no worries whatsoever of the world he was living in.

"Who are you?" Hatsubaba barked belligerently at him.

"The name's Iktomi. Anansi never told you anything? I'm supposed to meet him here now. Where's that old man?"

"Who old man?" Meta asked innocently while blinking his eyes curiously.

"_The_ old man, that Anansi." Iktomi said while looking down at the little blond boy, and then a Cheshire cat grin bloomed, "that hopelessly doting parent."

Meta cocked his head sideways and there was a confused look on his face.

"But Anansi is not old."

"Doesn't look old, but not necessary young age-wise." Iktomi shrugged and bent down to ruffle the boy's hair.

Meta giggled happily when Iktomi did that; he always liked people to ruffle his hair. Meta gave Iktomi a huge toothy grin, and Iktomi's face froze. He then turned to Hatsubaba and gave a silly smile.

"No wonder Anansi kidnapped this cute little thing."

Hatsubaba snorted indignantly.

"He did not kidnap him."

Iktomi laughed loudly.

"Yeah right. Like I don't know what kind of a creature he is. I've been his assistant for centuries not for nothing, you know," he said with a wink.

Hatsubaba scowled at his quirk. She had heard Anansi mentioning something about meeting up with his assistant, but the old woman had not really spared any thought for it. She was vaguely aware of Anansi's status in his territory—he was one of the leaders of the animal incarnations in Tichitt Walata.

Tichitt Walata was a region located in a scorching continent with a lot of deserts scattered all over the place, and the air was crackling dry. Traces of severe cases of drought were easy to spot at some places, causing the soil to dry up with weaves of cracks along the ground. Tichitt Walata was one of the fortunate places that could afford acres of savannahs and meadows, though the place was rife with savage animals and beasts that were in constant competition for survival.

In the region there was a huge settlement that preserved a long extinct ancient civilization; which name had already been erased from history and had been forgotten from the memories of mankind. This civilization hosted a huge temple that housed the local deities and the mythological creatures that enshrouded the civilization. One of the most reserved of such creatures was actually Anansi—something that Kuroro Lucifer would find hard to believe since Anansi always acted all silly and goofy around him.

Exactly in the backyard of the said temple was where Hatsubaba and Meta were killing their time by making Dreamcatchers while waiting for Anansi's return.

"So where's my boss?" Iktomi asked again while looking around as if hoping that his boss would pop out of nowhere upon the mention of his name.

"He has an errand to do." Hatsubaba answered curtly.

Iktomi gave a hum as the indication that he heard her answer. His eyes then moved back to Meta; who was still looking at him with wide eyes. Every inch of his being was radiating inquisitiveness and he seemed to be fidgeting in acute curiosity. His eyes seemed to be beaming with excitement. Catching up with the little boy's excitement, Iktomi grinned widely at him and squatted before the blond so that he was eye-level to the mini Kuruta.

"Say, aren't you bored playing with this old ha—lady?" He asked, ignoring Hatsubaba's pointed glare.

Meta then smiled sheepishly at him and turned his eyes downcast. Even without hearing it, Iktomi could feel it—the boy was indeed bored with playing with an ancient thing like Hatsubaba. Despite knowing it, however, Iktomi pressed the Kuruta boy to speak as he wanted to hear it straight from his own lips.

"Well?"

"…yes…" The boy finally answered with tiny voice.

Hatsubaba only harrumphed and snorted in annoyance, but she held no hard feelings towards the boy. After all, he was only slightly over four-years-old. Satisfied with the answer, Iktomi made a high-pitch whistling sound directed towards the temple. In no time, a small figure leapt from the high terrace of the temple, landing on the dirt firmly with the grace of a…well…spider.

The three of them looked at the approaching figure with different emotions in their eyes—Iktomi sported a look of glee, Meta was gleaming with barely contained excitement and curiosity, while Hatsubaba was radiating anything but wariness. The newcomer turned out to be a child; a boy of about ten years of age. He was like an exact copy of Iktomi, only that he had fewer accessories adorning his lithe body. His hair was also less outrageous than the older man. While Iktomi came across as somewhat wild and carefree, the boy had more reserved and quiet air around him while carrying a certain sense of dignity. It was ironic, really—while Iktomi was obviously older than the boy, the latter had more mature demeanour than the former.

"Meta, meet Ksa here. If it'll please you, he'll be your playing mate for the time being until my boss comes back." Iktomi said while beaming as if he was proud of himself for coming up with such 'brilliant' idea.

"Hello!" Meta, in no time, ran towards Ksa without any care for the world. He even grabbed and shook the older boy's hands vigorously. "Let's play!"

"Meta!" Hatsubaba cried out to him. She then made a mental note to tell the boy's mother to teach him to be more wary of strangers and whoever was introduced to him.

Ksa smiled sweetly at the younger boy, and Meta took it as a sign of approval. Without so much as waiting for permission from Hatsubaba or Iktomi, Meta dashed towards the temple while dragging Ksa in his hand not without a squeal of delight escaping from his mouth. In no time, they disappeared beyond the moss-infested gate of the temple.

* * *

At the very same time as when Ksa was introduced to Meta in the broad daylight of Tichitt Walata, it was midnight in Ryuusei-gai. A platinum-gold haired man sat down on the ground while bowing his head as he looked down at the small mound of earth that was the humble grave of a certain person. He said nothing and did nothing aside from staring at it as if he was reading a book. Hours had passed by, and he had remained there ever since he left Kuroro and Kurapika on their own devices back then in Isthar's private chamber.

Anansi understood very well that Kuroro was undeniably the next in line to inherit Ishtar's legacy, as Basille had shown positive reaction to his presence. Never before this kind of incidence had occurred, considering that Ishtar was the foremother of Ryuusei-gai itself and this was the first time the 'throne' had ever been handed down to a new generation. This was problematic—no, problematic would be an understatement. It was painfully obvious that Kuroro did not want anything to do with the legacy, and he was unlikely to change his mindset for a very long time—not to mention that he probably would _never_ change his mind anyway.

The water of the lake lapped gently, as if trying to comfort the distressed man. The silent continued, and the world grew darker with each passing time.

"What a dilemma, huh?" A sweet voice nudged him from his silent reverie, causing him to look to his side to find a certain scantily-clad yet lavishly accessorised woman standing a few paces away from him. With a skip, the woman—Scheherazade—took a seat next to Anansi and bowed her head solemnly at the grave.

"Why are you here?" Anansi asked with flat tone, as if he was not really interested to hear the answer and was just asking for the sake of asking.

"Should I not be here, then?"

"…That's not what I'm implying."

"Of course not." Scheherazade giggled as she cast her glistening eyes at the peaceful lake. "Say, the old snake is going to expire soon. Aren't you going to do something about it?"

"Unfortunately, the issue is not within my jurisdiction."

"Is it not, really?" Scheherazade hummed dubiously. "You know very well that if that snake dies, then Ryuusei-gai will die along with it, don't you?"

Anansi narrowed his eyes at this. Of course he knew that; he was there when Ishtar established the temple as the fortress of Ryuusei-gai to deter the onslaught of mythical creatures and the likes towards the city. Located in the centre of God-forsaken-land such as the desert of Ruthenia, the Meteor City was actually intertwined with a beast-infested forest. The only reason why Ishtar kept the forest just at the doorstep of the city was because they needed the food supplies that the forest could produce for the citizen—water being on the top list. If Ryuusei-gai's last hope of maintaining the fortress—which was Basille as she was practically a fragment of Ishtar's existence that was left behind—was to collapse, the 'barrier' would crumble as well and that would be the end of Ryuusei-gai.

"And what do you expect me to do? Coax Kuroro to accept the legacy? You know that he loathes a responsibility that is thrust into his hands while he does not ask for it. He only applies his sense of responsibilities on liabilities that he has chosen for himself." Anansi scoffed not too rudely.

"So that little blond runt is for the last resort?" Scheherazade pressed on, with a knowing smirk plastered on her tanned face. Anansi turned to glare at her, but she remained unfazed. "Oh, come on. Just like you do, I hear everything that goes on in this world. After all, I'm _me_." She said while twirling a curly strand of her thick black hair.

"Meta does have Ishtar's blood in him; naturally, even. It is highly possible that Basille may choose him as well, but he is just too young for the job."

"And by the time he has grown up and ready for the job, Basille would have been long gone and so would this city." Scheherazade concluded while still playing with her hair. "That will beat the purpose, then."

"Exactly."

"So what's the problem here now? To convince Kuroro to take on the job?" The woman asked with almost bored tone.

"I suppose so. The question is 'how', considering that the boy can be too smart for his own goodness."

"Well, if logic can't win him over, then we can always use conscience."

Anansi gave a snort of dry amusement.

"You know how the word 'conscience' and that boy don't stay together."

The tale-weaver smiling knowingly and continued, "Let's just wait for a little while more and perhaps something will come out of it."

Anansi turned to stare at the woman with suspicion.

"You know something."

"Of course I do. Like I said, I am a spinner of tales and I think I've just found another excellent material to work on." She chuckled while turning her head to gaze to a certain direction in the city.

* * *

The pale moon was staring at the window of a certain place in Ryuusei-gai with its soft silvery ray. It penetrated slightly through the slits of the old wooden window. Its shy lines that were etched faintly on the floor somehow shone like they were mocking him; like the way Scheherazade sometimes did.

Kuroro averted his gaze towards the sleeping blonde in his arms. Kurapika was sleeping peacefully; she was worn out yet content. He remembered during the earlier days of their travel when they would sleep a very guarded sleep because of their undue yet sensible wariness towards each other. He remembered seeing her sleeping with frowns always etched on her face, but over the years those frowned smoothened out and now she was sleeping like she was at home. Well, he could not blame her for that—he himself felt oddly at home as well.

Looking at Kurapika's innocent sleeping face, he could not help but to recall the almost identical face of a certain little boy. He then began pondering about his namesake—something that he had been curious about since the beginning.

_Metatron; the mightiest angel in the highest rank of the angelic hierarchy. Lucifer; the fallen angel who was once God's beloved angel. _Kuroro chuckled softly at the irony of those names. _That's very thoughtful of you, Kurapika. _

Absentmindedly, Kuroro's eyes wandered to the aquamarine-onyx ring on his ring finger. He had looked at that ring for countless time before that he knew the features of the ring like the back of his own hand. Every tiny little detail of the ring was etched in his brain; even he could accurately point out the number of scratches the ring had and their respective location.

_Using names to contradict the legacy that he may have inherited. But if that is to be the case, why even bother giving him my name?_

Kurapika suddenly moved in his arms; mumbling some unintelligible words and snuggling closer towards him. A thin smile graced Kuroro's face. He tucked her under his chin and closed his eyes; letting sleep to come over him.

_Well, it doesn't really matter, anyway._

* * *

The first thing she noticed when she was waking up was the warmth. Next was the faint whiff of musky scent. Next was the steady raising and falling of chest that indicated that someone was lying next to her; breathing and alive. Even without opening her eyes, she knew who the person was, and the least thing she could do was to breathe out in relief. It was not like she could help it; the last time they shared a bed he had vanished without a trace—if the (stupid) note and the Solomon Ring were not to be counted.

Prying open her eyes, she found Kuroro still blissfully sleeping next to her. To be honest, she was surprised that she was the one to wake up first before him. She had always been a late riser to due her low blood-pressure, and during their journey together a few years back Kuroro had always been the first one to get up and annoy the living hell out of her to wake her up—by staring at her until she woke up due to the uneasiness of being stared at intensely from such close quarter. Although she had spelled out her reason on why she did not want to wake up knowing that her (self-proclaimed) enemy was staring at her while she had been asleep, her words never seemed to successfully penetrate that thick skull of his. Her mood would then plummet down when he admitted that he had been staring at her for less than an hour, but Kurapika had never wanted to verify this statement as she was too horrified with the prospect of finding out that it was really indeed the truth (though she was aware that Kuroro had never lied to her and thus his statement was indeed true!)

Normally she would scowl when she remembered such annoying memories, but this time round she decided to smile at it.

_The good old days…_she muttered in her mind.

She was never a very laidback person, and so after a while of simply staying on bed and enjoying her early morning, Kurapika decided to get up and do something. Clutching the blanket to her bare chest, she sat up slowly and looked around. The room was still dimly lit and the air was cold. Shuddering slightly as her exposed skin was assaulted by the chill, Kurapika reached out for the nearest piece of clothing she could get her hands on—which turned out to be Kuroro's shirt that was discarded on the floor.

She eyed the shirt tentatively, before turning to look at the sleeping man on the bed next to her. He had a very peaceful expression on his face as if he had no care of the world and was content with the way things were around him. After a while, she tore her gaze from him and stared back at the harmless shirt. With a shrug, she finally (although a bit hesitantly) slid herself into the shirt and buttoned it up. The shirt fell until her mid-thigh and she had to wonder on why the shirt was so freaking baggy on her while she was only a few inches shorter than him.

Dismissing the irrelevant thought, she set about looking for her own discarded articles of clothing. She found her blouse and was rather disheartened to see that the buttons were ruined and realized that it would be too much a pain to look for the missing buttons in the room. Sighing as she folded the wasted blouse, she picked the rest of the pieces of clothes and absentmindedly dumped them on the nearby chair.

_What am I to do, then? _She wondered as she scanned the room once more. She spotted the wardrobe sitting silently at one corner of the room and thought of the only thing that someone in her position could think of. With bare feet, Kurapika crossed the room and opened the wardrobe.

A stale odour assaulted her nose and she wrinkled her face in disgust at it. It was the characteristic smell of a space that had not been aired for far too long. She took one glimpse into the wardrobe and was not surprised to see how scarcely filled the wardrobe was. She was aware that Kuroro was not all too fond of visiting Ryuusei-gai for many reasons, therefore the lack of need to stock up his wardrobe in that particular place. She reached out for the smallest shirt and inspected it. The dusty smell aside, it was still in good condition and definitely wearable. She spotted a towel and took it with her as well.

Curiously, she looked into the wardrobe further and began inspecting the other articles of clothes. She felt the fabrics with her fingers and had to grudgingly admit that he indeed had a good eye for high quality materials and definitely better sense of fashion than hers.

"Having fun?"

The sudden ring of low voice jolted the blessed life out of her for a fleeting second before she spun on her heels while clutching the shirt against her chest as if it was her lifeline. Sitting up on the bed with his lower torso under the blanket was Kuroro Lucifer in his full bed hair glory. There was an amused smile plastered on his face as he studied Kurapika who looked like a little mouse cornered by a predatory cat—and Kurapika was aware of this. He saw no reason why she should act that way, and Kurapika at the same time felt foolish for acting that way. Quickly straightening up her posture and expression, she answered him:

"Well I have to find a replacement for my blouse that you ruined."

It was not really answering his question, but it did not really matter to them. Kuroro simply maintained the thin smile of amusement on his face while nodding slightly.

"So you decided to take compensation out of my wardrobe."

"Does it look otherwise?"

"No."

It would seem that Kurapika had completely forgotten that she was only wearing Kuroro's shirt and _nothing_ else, but Kuroro did notice this. He looked at her from top to bottom, and back to her questioning face. Another kind of smile bloomed on his face and Kurapika could not help but to freeze upon spotting it. It was the teasing-mode kind of smile that was so smugly characteristic of him.

"It suits you." He said after a while.

"What?" Kurapika blinked.

"Your morning attire." He chuckled.

Kurapika's eyes widened and she looked down at herself. A deep shade of red washed over Kurapika's face when she belated noticed how invi—provocative—she looked like. She did not dare to use the word 'inviting' to describe her present appearance; that would just sound too wrong and…well…suggestive. With a mad dash, Kurapika made a beeline for the bathroom and slammed the door behind her while there was absolutely no reason for her to act so aside from her embarrassment alone.

* * *

"Should she be here?"

"I don't know. It's too much a hassle to put her back in her room and goodness knows how cranky she is if I give her to the nurses in town to look after her. I don't want her pulling at my hair again."

"She always does than when she's upset, huh?"

"Shut up, Shalnark. You don't know how strong she can be when she's angry."

"She's definitely not strong, Lucian. I think you're just afraid of hurting her and consequently have Kurapika breathing down your neck while she contemplates on skinning you alive."

"Very helpful, friend. What about you be more helpful by focusing on your damn toy instead of irritating me like there's no tomorrow?"

Those voices were not loud, but she had very keen hearing to be able to pick up every word that was exchanged between the two grown-ups. Granted that she did not really understand their conversation, she still found the noises too loud to ignore and thus it roused her from her nap. Noiselessly; as she always was, Bia fluttered open her eyes and looked around her surrounding. She vaguely remembered the place, though it was slightly different from the one in her recent memory.

Lucian had brought her to the lab several times as he had to work and Bia would not leave him alone. This was, however, her first of ever being inside the so-called secret chamber of the vampire's underground laboratory. It was the chamber that housed the recovering Heen.

Curiosity perking up, Bia started scanning the room and her eyes found their stop on a certain humongous tank that was filled with brightly-coloured liquid. Inside the tank was a floating man with several tubes attached to his body and a respiratory mask clamped on his face. The girl was fortunate to remember nothing of her nightmarish experience of being confined in a similar tank back then in Bensalem, since she did not seem upset at all as she gazed at the tank. If anything, she could not take away her bright hazel eyes from the figure of the olive-skinned man floating inside the tank.

A soft beep resounded in the small chamber.

"We can take him out now," came Shalnark's calm voice.

"Good. Empty the tank."

Another beep was heard and the tank gave a gentle humming sound. Bia watched in expressionless fascination as the liquid inside the tank stirred and the depth began to decrease. For some reason, the man inside the tank managed to steadily stand on his own two feet without even a single stagger while he seemed to have been sleeping the entire time. The tank then rotated to allow an exit for the drenched man inside the tank. Wordlessly, the man stepped out of the tank and shivered when the cold air of the lab hit his exposed skin.

"Here, use this." Lucian said while tossing him a thick blanket. "And welcome to the dry world once again. You are now officially out of my hair, young man."

Heen raised an eyebrow as he wrapped the warm towel around him and regarded Lucian with amused expression. He had always wondered who this man was. He looked too pale and out of place for a human, but he had been dutifully overseeing his recovery process from the beginning until the end.

"Thank you." He muttered, not surprised to hear his voice cracking and hoarse due to lack of use at all. He had been in the tank for hours since Machi had come to sew the artificial limbs to the stumps of his amputated limbs.

"Anytime." Lucian shrugged casually.

"Can I ask you something?" Heen asked rather hesitantly

"Fire away."

"Why did you bring me here in the first place? Why not just leave me for dead?"

Yes, Heen had always been curious about it. Why did the pale man bother to go out of his way to save a mangled half-dead man like him who just happened to be in his way? Did he do this to all injured person he met in his way? Unlikely. The man did not seem to be a saint.

"_Ei bine…_(well) I know that you have something to do with Lucifer."

"How?" Heen asked with a frown. This man was not making any sense.

"That's something you'll be better off not knowing." Lucian grinned.

Heen's frown creased further and when his eyes caught a movement at the corner of the dimly lit room, his eyes widened instead. There, sitting up on a table, was a little girl with snow-white hair and hazel eyes that were almost identical to his. Disbelieving his eyes, Heen had to blink and rub his eyes. Lucian raised a single quizzical eyebrow at this gesture and looked over his shoulder to see what was bothering the newbie Spider.

"Ah, _bună dimineaţa__,__doamnă__mici__._ (good morning, small lady)" He said with a grin. Now this was getting exciting.

"Lucian, are you sure it's okay to let them meet now without telling Danchou?" Shalnark whispered to the vampire, careful not to let the distracted man hear his words.

"Like I care." Lucian huffed. "He has given me too many troubles as of late, now it's my turn to do as I like."

Shalnark sighed inwardly. _So ancient yet so childish…_

"Bia?" Heen finally managed to choke out the word.

The said girl only cocked her head sideways with unrecognising look in her emotionless eyes. She said nothing and did not even move a muscle. She looked just like a porcelain doll and nothing else.

"Bia?" Heen said again, this time moving towards her.

She still gave no visible reaction, even when Heen was already standing by the table she was sitting on. She only stared blankly at his face. Knowing the implication of this lack of response, Heen's face fell and his shoulders slumped.

"She really doesn't remember me, huh?"

"I'd say that she's damaged beyond memories only." Lucian supplied for him.

Heen turned to stare in confusion at him. "What do you mean?"

"The lass there," he gestured at the mute girl, "is not only suffering from major case of muscle atrophy and memory loss, but also from damage on her psychology and mental health."

"Are you saying that my sister has gone crazy?" Heen snarled.

"That's not what I'm saying. You are jumping into conclusion." Lucian said with a shrug.

"So what am I supposed to think of?"

"She has basically reverted to using her primal basic instinct to survive, seeing that she clings to Kurapika like she is her mother." Lucian offered.

Before he can completely process that piece of information, Shalnark had gone out of his way to supply him with information that might have not been that crucial yet had quite an impact on the poor disoriented young man.

"And to Danchou like he is her father."

Several seconds passed before a roar of indignation escaped from Heen's pale lips.

"WHAT?"

* * *

She wrapped the towel tightly around her body and clutched her new shirt (which ownership she had unofficially taken over from Kuroro) against her chest. Her blonde hair was still dripping wet Gingerly she opened the bathroom door slightly, allowing a crack for her to peek outside. Seeing that Kuroro Lucifer was not within sight, Kurapika opened the door fully and took one step outside.

"I never know that you are the type who gets out of the bathroom clad in towel only."

Kurapika drew a sharp hitched breath as she heard the low voice right behind her. The voice had a thick ring of amusement in it, and when Kurapika spun around to look at his face, she knew that his voice had genuinely expressed his amusement. The man was leaning against the wall next to the bathroom door with, blessed the Lord, his pants on. He was still topless, though. There was a smirk gracing his face as he studied Kurapika closely.

Feeling his eyes on her, she could not help but to squirm uneasily and walked away from him. She quickly grabbed her forgotten underwear and jeans and marched towards the bathroom again. Even when she was not looking at his face, she could literally _feel_ his smug smirk directed at her. How infuriating.

"Why so shy, Kurapika?"

"Shut up!" She grumbled and slammed the bathroom door behind her _again_.

Kuroro chuckled again, and even more when he had spotted the marks decorating her chest and neck. He wondered if Kurapika had even noticed them or not, but most likely she had considering that she practically covered her chest and neck with his (now her) shirt.

Needless to say that Kurapika had _of course_ noticed all those tiny marks all over her chest and some on her neck. She had been flustered to see them when she had been bathing but then again when she thought about it, why should she be flustered in the first place? This was not exactly her first time, though she could not help but to notice that the first time it had not been as…well…explorative? Kurapika shuddered at the thought; embarrassed by her own self.

When she had completely dressed himself, she found Kuroro sitting on the bed with a kind of contemplative look on his face. His face was turned towards the still closed windows, and he seemed to be absentmindedly wondering about certain things. Rather warily Kurapika approached him but kept a distance from him—she did not want to be an object of his teasing again. She knew that Kuroro was aware of her presence, but she said nothing to probe on his thoughts. Despite his calm exterior, Kurapika knew better—that the man could be irritatingly talkative when he wanted to, annoying the life out of her. As such, she allowed silence to descend among them.

"I always thought your surname is Kuruta," Kuroro finally broke the silence.

Kurapika stared at him, initially unsure on how to respond to the sudden question. It was not particularly a sensitive issue or anything; long time ago it would have been one and she would have yelled at him to mind his own business, but now no more. Things were different now.

"No. It's a clan name. Everyone in my village had Kuruta as their last name. Their middle name is their family name."

Kuroro was silent for a while, as if digesting the bit of information rather lazily, before asking again:

"What is yours, then?"

Kurapika shook her head solemnly.

"I lost it the day I lost my entire family."

"And yet you have given your son one."

It was more of a question than a statement, and Kuroro had yet to turn to fully face Kurapika. The latter looked at the former with a thoughtful expression, as if contemplating something related to the man.

"Lucifer is not your surname either, is it?"

"No. It's a name given by Ishtar; nothing more, nothing less. I don't have surnames, either. Even if I had, I don't remember it and I have no desire to find out. It has no great significance." He shrugged nonchalantly, true to his words.

"So it's all the more appropriate to give him the surname 'Lucifer'," Kurapika said, sitting own on the edge of the bed while drying her dripping wet hair with her towel, "seeing that he was born naturally with Ishtar's blood and so her heritage as well, one way or another."

Kurapika had spoken all those so nonchalantly that even she was surprised by her own voice. She had never thought she would talk about such issue with such calmness it freaked her out slightly. Nevertheless, she still managed the calm exterior on her face and demeanour in general. She then heard Kuroro's chuckles and him muttering about "even the most stubborn person can change", though she chose not to comment about it.

Kuroro then stood up and walked past her. Suddenly, as he brushed past her, she was compelled to tell him one thing.

"In Kuruta village…" She started almost hesitantly.

Kuroro stopped and turned on his heels to look at her fully. Regarded with such quizzical stare, Kurapika could not help but to squirm slightly. Licking her dry lips to build up her courage, she continued with her words: "They don't vow 'until death do us apart'. They vow 'until our souls cease to exist'."

This time, Kuroro raised an eyebrow as he was genuinely surprised and taken aback by her little announcement. It was not an everyday occurrence that the uptight Kuruta would tell him something related to her tribe, let alone deliberately on her own accord. Surely she had something in her mind that she spoke those words in the first place. The gears in Kuroro's brains began working and soon enough he vaguely knew what she was hinting about. A smirk graced his naturally pale face.

"Let me guess. When you were still a sweet little girl, you had dreamed of saying that vow with your future husband, no?"

Despite her back turned towards him, he could clearly see her shoulders stiffening. Though he could not see her face, he could sense her face blushing furiously. He then laughed softly at this.

"If you can be so kindly as to leave out the 'sweet little' part…" He caught her murmuring, almost to herself, "I've never been particularly sweet anyway…Everyone always called me unruly little fiend…"

Kuroro could not help but to snicker at this. True, he could not imagine Kurapika being a sweet little girl in the first place; properly behaved like some small lady. That was just so not Kurapika that he knew. Nevertheless, he noticed that she never denied the 'dreamed of saying that vow' part. With a smug grin plastered on his face, he stalked towards Kurapika's back. He sat on the other edge of the bed and hooked Kurapika's neck with one arm and pulled her towards him. She let out a strangled yelp as she stumbled towards the bed on her back. Kuroro then loomed over her with his hands planted on the spaces at her sides.

"How about doing it our way, then?" He offered; the smirk never leaving his face.

Kurapika blinked in bewilderment at Kuroro's proposal.

"Our way?"

"Mmhm. Our way." He nodded but did not elaborate.

Kurapika frowned; she was not getting it. "How exactly?"

"Come on, Kurapika. I have already done my part years ago." He grinned teasingly.

This caused Kurapika's eyes to widen as wide as a saucer. Years ago? Vow? When? She ransacked through her memories for a certain event that might be connected with vow-declaration or the likes, but she failed to find any. Despite seeing the confusion plain on her face, Kuroro refused to elaborate at all. He could wait; after all, he was always the patient man.

A few minutes passed until finally something clicked in Kurapika's mind.

"Are you, by any chance, talking about…" she turned hesitant, but continued nevertheless, "…the Nen-sharing…?"

Kuroro's grin widened.

"What say you, then?"

To be honest, the first thing that came to Kurapika's mind was: "This conversation is getting out of hand!" but none of those words went as much as stumbling out of her mouth. She merely opened her mouth and closed it again, like a goldfish that was out of oxygen. Seeing her positively amusing reaction, Kuroro chuckled and leaned downwards towards her. She tensed slightly, and this was ignored by Kuroro.

"You are a selfish man, do you know that?" Kurapika finally said in one breath. She had not even noticed that she had been holding her breath.

"What's yours is mine. What's mine is yours. It's really only a matter of fair trade." He said; their foreheads almost touching each other's while some strands of Kuroro's dark hair brushed against Kurapika's cheeks.

"Incorrigibly selfish," she muttered while blowing a stray strand of his hair away and her hand reached up to touch his arm.

"Indeed."

With a vague sniff to respond to his nonsensical response, Kurapika willed her Nen to flow smoothly, surging from her body and enveloping the two of them like a protective cocoon. Kuroro noticed the unusual feeling like he was immersed in a kind of dense liquid, with prickling sensation all over his body. Kurapika's Nen soon seeped into his body almost hesitantly through the pores of his skin; starting from his arm which Kurapika was touching, and it swam deeper into the heart of his being. The tentacles of her Nen spread, prodding in search of the core of his Nen. Kuroro felt a constricting sensation in his chest the moment Kurapika's Nen touched his Nen.

Since they had done this before—with Kuroro's Nen which prodded into Kurapika's Nen instead of the other way round—the hailstorm that occurred when their Nen clashed was missing. There was indeed a slight turbulence inside their being, but only lasted fleetingly.

Kuroro closed his eyes, nursing the odd sensation of Nen-sharing. He could feel the new element that was slowly flourishing within him. That element was raw and pristine, yet strong. Paying attention to the smallest detail that was occurring during the connection, he noticed it when Kurapika finally detached a bit of her Nen and left it behind as her Nen retreated.

When her Nen had settled back into her, Kurapika heaved a sigh. It still left an odd yet strong impression as the first time they did it. She looked up to observe Kuroro's reaction but she never had the chance to decently do so as Kuroro had bent down and rested his head on her chest. Kurapika stiffened immediately and her eyes darted to the dark lump of a head down on her chest. To her surprise, she spotted Kuroro with his eyes closed and a content look on his face. He was not sleeping and she knew that.

With a sigh, Kurapika relaxed back her head onto the bed and decided to close her eyes as well. It was not often that they could have a chance to simply enjoy peace, so she might as well immerse herself in it while she could—as what Kuroro was currently doing.

* * *

"Ksa?"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

It was twilight in Tichitt Walata, and Meta was exhausted from exploring the temple all day long with his new friend. Ksa, however, did not seem tired at all. The tranquil smile was ever present on his youthful face, and currently he was sitting on the fur carpet spread on the stone floor in the temple with the four-years-old laying his head on his lap. He was stroking Meta's palm with his sinewy fingers, as if he was brushing an old photo longingly with his thumb.

"Do you know that you have a birthmark?" Ksa asked him quietly instead of answering the boy.

"Huh? What's a birthmark?" Without realising it, Meta had actually grown out of asking Ishtar for every single thing around him. Ishtar herself rarely made any sounds to him, except when really needed.

"A birthmark is a kind of drawing on your body that is already present since the moment you were born."

"Hm… I dunno. I never asked Mom, and she never told me. Can you find out for me?" Meta asked the older boy; his eyes sparkling with curiosity and excitement with the prospect of discovering something new about his own body, though in all honesty he did not fully understand the concept of birthmark.

"I can. In fact, I already know that you have a birthmark." Ksa answered with soft voice.

"Really? Where? Where?" Meta sat up and beamed at the dark-skinned boy.

"Here." The young tribal boy said while pointing at Meta's palm; the one that he had been stroking for quite a while.

"Huuu?" Meta lifted up his palm and scrutinised it. His brows furrowed in confusion. "I don't see any marks here."

"That's because it's concealed."

"Concealed?"

"Hidden," Ksa simplified his word.

"Oh." Meta stared again at his palm, before turning to Ksa. "Can you unhidden it?"

Ksa smiled again—he often smiled in his own discreet and subtle way; something that Meta did not understand about but it was a gesture that could unnerve any grown-ups.

"Of course. In fact, I am here to do just that."

With that, Ksa reached for Meta's hand and opened the palm upwards. Secretly, Ksa was grateful that Meta never questioned him "why" his birthmark was concealed. At first he had intended to use the word 'sealed', but he figured out that the boy perhaps would not understand the meaning. 'Sealed' would be the best words to describe the phenomenon, though Ksa could not explain why his birthmark was sealed since his birth.

Dismissing the irrelevant thoughts, Ksa once again stroked Meta's palm lightly with the tip of fingers, while this time he was muttering certain alien-sounding words under his soft breath. Meta then felt a prickling sensation on his palm, and it was getting itchy. He fidgeted uneasily as he tried to endure the itchiness, but it soon grew from simply itchy to painful.

"Ksa, it hurst." He began whining, but was ignored by Ksa.

"Ksa, it hurst. Really, really hurts." Meta said again, this time exponentially louder. Still Ksa ignored him.

"It huuuuuurts!" He finally yelled, unable to withstand the now burning sensation on his palm. He tried snatching away his hand from Ksa's hands, but his grip was iron-steel. No matter how fierce Meta was trashing around, he would not let go of the younger boy's hand.

"Ksaaaa!"

"It's done." Ksa finally said as he let go of Meta's hand.

Meta quickly withdrew his hand and clutched it against his chest; as if nursing a wounded rabbit. He glared accusingly at Ksa with tearful eyes but Ksa merely smiled and pointed at his hand.

"Look. It's your birthmark."

Those words were enough to mitigate Meta's unhappiness as the boy suddenly beamed. All frowns and glares forgotten, he took a peek at his own palm.

On his palm was the shape of cross with diamond-like line—one that was identical to a certain person's birthmark.

* * *

Loud footsteps could be heard echoing throughout the narrow corridor that led to the hill looming behind the castle. A certain vampire was stomping his way towards the gate that led to the spot where he had summoned a certain avian-human hybrid a few days back—was it yesterday? There was a degree of annoyance in his face that announced don't-get-in-my-way-if-you-don't-want-to-be-sucked-dry-as-I-am-on-my-way-to-kick-someone's-ass-now.

"About time they are back now…" Lucian Virgiliu growled as he focused his glare at the gate that was a few metres away from him.

Before he reached it, however, the said gate was pushed open and blinding light spilled into the dark corridor. Lucian had to shield his sensitive eyes from the sunlight—lucky for him that the effect of his sun block was still lasting. Two figures stepped into the corridor and the moment the door was closed behind them, Lucian could make out the identity of the owners of those silhouettes.

"Finally!" He yelled at them, not unkindly although obviously irritated.

"How's the babysitting, Lucian?" Kuroro asked with a smug grin on his face when they were only a few paces shy from the slightly fuming vampire.

"_Taci!_ (shut up)" Lucian growled unhappily. "It's a good thing that Bia behaves herself since she can't throw tantrums with her Nen sealed, otherwise I'll be chewing your head off right now!"

"You sound like a distressed pregnant woman." Kurapika could not help but to snicker.

"Did you speak from experience, Kurapika?" Lucian evilly retorted.

Kurapika responded by a vicious kick at the vampire's shin, effectively preventing himself from shooting another smart-assed comment yet never hindered him from muttering profanities in (thankfully) Romanian. Kuroro raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing to further comment about Lucian's remark. Kurapika's assault caused the poor vampire to crouch in pain as he attempted to rub the pain off his abused shin. When he looked up to glare at the blonde young woman, he happened to notice something.

"Say…" He started with a frown, "that shirt looks familiar to me…"

Kurapika froze, while Kuroro had a thin smile of anticipation. Kurapika was wearing Kuroro's old (and therefore small) shirt though she unbuttoned the last three buttons and tied the excess material into a knot around her waist. Lucian's eyes were fixed on, of all places, Kurapika's neck.

"And what's with those…tiny…" Lucian's eyes widened, "…marks…?"

"N, nothing!" she stammered while a pink hue was creeping to her cheeks.

Almost too hurriedly, Kurapika clutched the front of her baggy shirt and dashed past the still-shocked-yet-highly-amused-nonetheless vampire. Something glinted in the grey eyes of the vampire as he threw a final glance at the retreating Kuruta, before showering his human friend with a look of suspicion, accusation, tease, and questions. At this, Kuroro merely raised his eyebrows; daring him to voice out his questions.

"Hmm~~" Lucian tapped his chin with one sinewy finger while he folded one arm across his chest, with an ear-to-ear grin. "I suppose you had a fabulous time _last night_?"

Kuroro simply shrugged casually, but the thin smile never left his face. He slung one arm across the raven-haired human's shoulders easily—he was way taller than Kuroro was.

"Care to share?"

"That is for you to never find out," Kuroro said while removing Lucian's arm from his shoulders.

"_Ţigănos._ (stingy)"

"It's called privacy." Kuroro said offhandedly while walking away with his hands shoved into his pockets.

"Riii~~ght." Lucian said in a sing-song voice as he 'skipped' after Kuroro.

Kurapika, meanwhile, flung open the door with her face still in its glorious royal blush and her eyes downcast to her feet. She dared not to lift up her face in case someone saw her expression and right then she did not trust his facial muscles not to betray her grand embarrassment. The door flew open with a bang and Kurapika stormed into whatever room it was without even looking up. Consequently, she collided into something that felt like solid metal wall, letting out a grunt (of pain) and a gasp (of shock) in the process.

Trained and 'well seasoned', Kurapika did not stumble back and land on the floor on her but like how other girls usually did. She shoved one leg back to regain her equilibrium and rubbed her sore nose while blinking her eyes to rid the tears glazing her eyes—it really felt like she had run into concrete. Berating herself for being so thoughtless, Kurapika attempted to look up to check whatever or whoever it was that she had collided with. If it was a person, she would apologise for her clumsiness. However, when she refocused her eyes, she was staring at a pair of shoes.

"Uh, sorry I was not—"

Kurapika never finished her words as she was too busy staring dumbly at the person she had bumped into. The person—or rather, the man—was wearing a white suit, white undershirt, and jade green tie that matched his green hazel eyes. He had a pretty shade of olive for his skin tone and his curly mahogany hair framed his face, giving him a slightly feminine look. He towered over her with his cheeky grin directed at her.

A few seconds later, the two men emerged into the room and stared at the scene with some kind of anticipation.

"Have you told her?" Lucian questioned Kuroro in a low whisper.

"No." Kuroro admitted without a hitch in his voice, indicating that it did not matter.

Lucian gave him _the _look.

"You are oh so dead, Lucifer."

Kuroro merely let out a low chuckle and said nothing further. It was a sweet anticipation; to try guess how Kurapika would react with this sudden revelation. Not pretty most likely, but definitely amusing at the very least. Lucian knew of this train of thought as he studied his companion's face. He pulled up a face and turned to watch Kurapika again.

_You son of devil…_

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ I know I'm terribly late updating this chapter, but honestly not only that I'm struggling with my terrible, terrible time management for my school assignments, I was also a bit lost on how to resume from the previous chapter. I don't want them to be overly lovey-dovey because truthfully I don't think they are that type, but are they in this chapter?_

_Oh, try guessing why I put the title as 'Almagamation' =P _

_**Next:**__ Now that Kurapika has bumped into the freshly-out-of-tank Heen, how would she react to the situation?It did not seem that she was going to take it easily. _


	21. Chapter 19: Acceptance

_**Disclaimer: **__Still not mine._

_**Story so far:**__ After their little adventure in Ryuusei-gai, the duo returned to Muntenia empty-handed—though it went without saying that their journey was not without any results, disregarding the fact that the result did not necessarily concern the missing child. However, Kurapika was in for a big surprise and it seemed that Kuroro had deliberately plotted it._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 19**

_**ACCEPTANCE**_

_**

* * *

**_

"Sorry, I was not—"

Her words hang in the air uselessly, and Kurapika had her mouth ajar like a gaping goldfish. She stared at the person right before her while the person smiled her enchantingly.

"Not paying attention?" The man offered generously.

Kurapika gave no reaction. If anything, she looked like she had transformed into a stone statue. Silence filled the entire room; with anticipation engulfing Kuroro Lucifer and his vampire companion—though Lucian's anticipation was more of a dry and humourless one than anything else. The olive-skinned man stared at Kurapika with slight expression of loss on his face. He bent forward and waved a hand in front of Kurapika's spacing-out face.

"Kurapika? Are you—"

SLAP!

Kuroro raised an eyebrow. Lucian grimaced as if he was the one being slapped. The victim of Kurapika's violence blinked several times, his brain still registering and processing the event that had just transpired. Kurapika had her hand raised yet her face still betrayed the shock that was welling up within her. She retracted her hand and stared at it with disbelieving eyes.

"Ow, what was that for?" Heen protested as he rubbed his sore cheek.

"It's real."

"Yeah, duh." Heen rolled his eyes. "Flesh and blood."

_Partially_, Lucian muttered inwardly. He dared not to whisper it out loud lest the sometimes-oversensitive girl overheard him—if that happened, that would be the end of him. Kurapika would tear him from limbs to limbs, or perhaps with the addition of scattering his entrails to the fish by the shore of the town…Okay, his imagination just went _slightly_ overboard but he had the feeling that Kurapika _might_ really do all those. Female hormones and their mood-swings side-effects were the scariest thing he had ever encountered in his long years of life.

"Ho, how—" Kurapika started, but then her brains decided to work wonders and she immediately figured out what had actually happened. She spun on her heels and glared daggers at a certain raven-haired man; who was smirking smugly at her. "YOU!"

"Me?" Kuroro echoed her.

"Don't act innocent, you conniving bastard! What's the meaning of this?" Kurapika screeched as she pointed an accusing finger at Heen.

"Just as how it is plainly presented to you." Kuroro answered smoothly and coolly—in exactly the manner that he knew Kurapika could not stand the most.

By this time, Lucian was already inching away so that he was hidden behind Kuroro, though it helped little since he was much taller than the latter anyway.

"Heen, at your service, Ma'am." Heen said politely with a knowing yet mischievous smile on his tanned face. "Presenting to you the newest addition to the Genei Ryodan: number 11."

This declaration by Heen was equivalent to a flash bomb dropped right in front of Kurapika's face. She just froze there; eyes still locked with Kuroro's dark ones, finger still pointing rudely at Heen's face, mouth still hanging ajar from her earlier shouting at Kuroro. Several seconds passed and she did not move a muscle. To Lucian, the unbearable silence was as deafening as if a time-bomb was ticking away.

"Lucian, a few words with you alone." Kuroro finally said quietly at the vampire as he walked away.

_Good! About time that I make my leave. Kurapika seems like she's going to snap very soon, and I absolutely don't want to be there when she does snap,_ Lucian thought as he shuddered slightly upon imagining the carnage that might occur once the temperamental Kuruta snapped.

As the two men slipped from the room, yet another set of silence passed between the two remaining occupants of the room. Heen was getting worried—was Kurapika knocked out cold in shock or what? He moved to face her and waved a tentative hand in front of her face.

"Kurapika?" He called out to her softly. "Kurapiiii~~~ka?"

She did not snap out of her trance when he did so, but she did blink and she lowered her arm ever so slowly. She then looked down to her feet as she had a distraught expression on her face.

"You alright?" Heen asked.

"Y, yes—no, I mean, of course I'm NOT fine!" Kurapika snapped. "What the hell is going on?"

"Well, simply put Lucifer decided not to kill me because he wanted me to join his gang so—"

"No, I know as much!" Kurapika interjected impatiently.

"Then?" Heen raised an eyebrow. He did not understand what was wrong with the girl now.

"It—it's just that… Damn…" Kurapika began combing her hair nervously as she started to pace around aimlessly.

"How am I supposed to know if you don't tell me, seriously?" Heen crossed his arms. "Is this too much information for you to process? Or too shocking, perhaps?"

"No, that's not the problem. The problem is it…kind of…makes sense…" Kurapika's voice trailed away.

"What does make sense?" Heen was really not getting it.

"He spared you because he saw potential in you. He left it for Lucian to deal with you knowing that Lucian would come, somehow somewhat. He blackmailed you into joining the Spider. Is that what has happened?" Kurapika asked, all in one breath.

"Uh… In general, yes." Heen nodded. _Thought it's not exactly blackmail, but maybe it's really close to that anyway,_ he vaguely mused.

"Oh no, no, no…" Kurapika started combing her hair again, and this was starting to get to Heen's nerves.

"Seriously, Kurapika, what's WRONG?"

"I'm starting to think that his actions all make sense, while usually they don't." Kurapika whispered almost to herself.

"So?"

Kurapika turned to Heen and glared at him so intensely that if looks could kill then he would have been mutilated beyond recognition—even worse than when Kuroro Lucifer had barraged him with shotgun bullets back then in Bensalem. Heen then instinctively backed away when Kurapika yelled:

"I DON'T WANT TO START THINKING THE WAY HE DOES!"

* * *

The two of them remained in silence for a while—Kuroro sorting out his thoughts and questions while Lucian waited patiently for the 'Questions & Answers' session that was about to come. He knew what the Spider Head was going to ask, but he would rather hear the questions straight from his own lips rather than making haphazard-but-sensible guesses.

So he waited.

"Your body language shows that you have an idea on what I'm going to ask you. So let's get straight to the point: you know of my ancestry, I assume?" Kuroro said with straight face as he turned to regard the vampire coolly.

Lucian raised an eyebrow.

"Sure I do. To be honest, I've just found out when you ran off with your _fată_ (girl) to Ryuusei-gai. But I suppose," Lucian narrowed his eyes as he carefully endeavoured to read his human friend's atmosphere, "that you've already done your homework about your ancestors."

"A bit of research, yes, but I'd rather hear more from you since this whole…" Kuroro paused as he searched for the best word, "…concept…is originated from your country." He then crossed his arms and looked demandingly (in a subtle way) at the vampire.

With a sigh, Lucian put his sinewy index finger on his forehead as he closed his eyes. Where did he even have to start? There were so many things to explain about Solomonarii, and he had no idea which information was relevant to Kuroro Lucifer or not.

"How much have you known?"

Kuroro was silent for a while, before he finally regurgitate all facts that he had learned from his brief yet intense visit to his personal library back there in Ryuusei-gai. He knew that the Solomonarii were not supernatural creatures but more like humans who had learned—or born with—special abilities. Children destined to be Solomonarii were born with a mark that was unique to every individual. The extent of these special abilities was still questionable as there were not a single cohesive documentation on the powers of these wizards and witches. Usually those who took their identity as Solomonarii seriously would want to further their abilities by learning from the devils themselves—absurd as it might sound to Kuroro but then again he had encountered genies so why should he be surprised if he met a devil, or demon, or even an angel next?

After hearing all those, Lucian nodded solemnly.

"Well, you know all the basics and the essentials. Unless you want to join the convent of those Solomonarii—which has a base in the capital—there is no need for you to know the other details as they are likely to be irrelevant. As for whatever special abilities you may have, don't ask me since it really depends on each individual. Go and figure out on your own."

Satisfied with Lucian's response, Kuroro merely nodded. There was no way that he was going to join whatever convent Lucian was talking about. Okay, perhaps now it was discovered that he had the blood of a Solomonar in his system but what significance did it bring to his life? He was already living with his blood mixed with a medusa's blood and it did not really change anything much; if his dependency on his restrainers could be exempted.

It was only a discovery; a new knowledge learned. Nothing would change just because of one measly discovery and that was that. Period.

"Does the Solomon Ring have anything to do with the Solomonarii? Their names sound too similar to be a coincidence." Kuroro asked calmly.

"I'm not too sure about that one. That piece of information goes way back to the ancient time. Actually, I did ask him about that one but the old man just told me that he wasn't going to tell _me_ that because he claimed that it doesn't concern me, and if _you_ want to know then you will have to personally ask him about that one." Lucian said with a shrug, though he seemed positively irritated when he mentioned about his father refusing to share the story with him because it does not concern him directly.

"Another time, preferably after this whole thing is sorted out, I suppose." Kuroro said with a nod. He made a mental note to visit the Muntenia ruler in the near future.

_It doesn't matter_, Kurapika had said almost offhandedly, as if she utterly meant it. She did not care about his heritage—odd, strange, bizarre, peculiar, demonic, or whatever else people might call it—then why should he care so much about it? While he did not want to cling to the fact that he was a descendant of a Solomonar, it would still do him good to know as much information about his own bloodline and the history behind it. Oh yes, Kuroro Lucifer would never forfeit the chance of learning anything new, no matter how gross or ugly that knowledge was.

"And please ram this into that thick skull of yours, Lucifer," Lucian said as he gave Kuroro a piercing stare, "above all, the Solomonarii are essentially _humans_."

The reason why Lucian had stressed that point was because he knew exactly how sensitive Kuroro Lucifer was regarding self-identity vis-à-vis 'human or monster' question.

"Duly noted," Kuroro said, almost dismissively.

_You better do,_ Lucian muttered inwardly. The last thing the vampire would want was his human friend experiencing another 'falling-out' with his psychology with the crappy excuse of 'I'm not entirely a human so it doesn't matter if I do this or that'. He was already psychologically unsound as he was at the moment, and it would be better for him to maintain that status quo rather than becoming the worse. Lucian would not want to hear an earful from Kurapika about how more insane the Spider Head had turned into.

"So," Lucian said with a deep intake of breath as he prepared himself to steer the conversation to another direction, "what's the situation now? No Meta in Ryuusei-gai?"

"Just as you have so expertly observed," Kuroro responded sarcastically.

"What's the plan now, then?"

Kuroro almost immediately went into a trance-like pondering mode as he thought of the situation. As they had thought, Meta was not in Ryuusei-gai. Kuroro then began recalling the places that he had visited. He sorted out the places that Anansi knew Kuroro had visited. He narrowed down the options further to those places that Anansi was likely to know better than the others. Despite being goofy and unreliable at most times, he knew that Anansi was no fool. If he wanted to 'hide', he would choose a place that he knew very well. After a while, Kuroro had narrowed down the options to two places.

And those were not very pleasant places.

* * *

Evening came rather peacefully. However, a certain pissed off young woman was stomping her way toward a certain room in a certain mansion in a certain town. When she reached her destination, she flung open the door without reservation and stormed into the room. She quickly spotted the resident of the room and made her way there. She stopped right in front of the raven-haired man; who was reading his book calmly and was unperturbed by her sudden invasion.

"Okay, you owe me an explanation BIG TIME." Kurapika demanded as she stood right in front of him and crossed her arms.

"What explanation?" He asked coolly without averting his attention from his book.

"Why did you trick me into thinking that you killed Heen?"

"Would you rather have me killed him in cold blood right there right then?" Kuroro asked back with a smirk on his face, causing the muscle beneath her eye to twitch in irritation.

"Of course not! But you are not answering my question." Kurapika narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Hm…" Kuroro merely hummed as he flipped the pages of his book. "If I tell you that it was for a fun, what will you say?"

Kurapika grimaced. "Then you have a really morbid sense of humour. Seriously, this is not funny."

"It was never intended to be funny." Kuroro nodded. "It was a gamble. If he managed to stay alive after all those and somehow made it out of that place, then he qualified to be a Spider. If he died, then it's too bad."

"You are a sick bastard."

"I know. You've said that so many times before." He even chuckled at this.

"And apparently it doesn't register into your brain." She scoffed.

"More like it doesn't matter to me." Kuroro shrugged as the amused smirk grew wider.

Kurapika glared daggers at him, and if looks alone could kill Kuroro would have been shredded into unrecognisable bits by then. Kuroro professionally endured Kurapika's intense glare without much efforts considering that he was so used to it. He had had worse than this level of glare coming from Kurapika.

"You insufferable jerk…" Kurapika finally muttered in defeat. She should have known better than to expect something close to kind-hearted, genuine, and _unconditional_ mercy coming from this man.

Kuroro only smiled and said nothing more. With a sigh and slumped shoulders, Kurapika pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Do you know that Bia doesn't recognise Heen at all?"

"I know. Lucian told me."

Flat tone, no sympathy, no empathy. _Who am I kidding?_ Kurapika thought while rolling her eyes. She combed her golden hair in frustration—it was becoming a new habit that came out of nowhere.

"Heen has been training her to control her Nen." She informed him.

"They have similar Nen abilities, so it's not surprising." Kuroro murmured half-interestedly.

"Do we leave her with him or what?"

For once, Kuroro looked up from his book and stared at Kurapika's face.

"I'm surprised that you even ask _me_ this question."

Kurapika shrugged. "He's your Spider."

"I was beginning to fear that you might consider adopting her." Kuroro murmured.

_Fear? Now that's a strange word coming out of your mouth,_ Kurapika snickered at the thought. With amused voice, she answered:

"I was."

Kuroro raised an eyebrow and put down his book on his lap as if he was going to be serious. He clasped both hands and rested them on his crossed knees. Perhaps he really was.

"And I suppose you know what I'm going to say about that?"

"Of course you'll be against it."

"So you should know what my answer for your earlier question is." Kuroro said dryly.

"I wouldn't dare to assume. Anyway, like I said, he's your newest Spider. I don't know if you have some arrangements for him in some ways or not, so I figure it'll be better to let you know the circumstances. For consideration."

Kuroro leaned back in his chair and looked at Kurapika with a thin grin of amusement.

"How thoughtful of you," Kuroro said rather teasingly, causing Kurapika to scowl. "You know, you've been involving yourself with my group awfully a lot lately."

_Do I?_ Kurapika could feel her blood turn cold upon hearing this.

"Interested to join? There's still vacancy. After all, you killed two of my members so you have automatically earned the position." Kuroro said again, the grin on his face growing wider and more mischievous.

"HELL NO!" Kurapika yelled at him.

Her outburst only caused Kuroro's grin to widen even more.

"You can make a good replacement for Pakunoda. She used to be the one keeping the others in line. Last time I checked, you managed to singlehandedly keep Phinks in order." Kuroro continued, ignoring the outraged look on the blonde's face. He was referring to the incident in Ryuusei-gai when Phinks had pulled a prank on Kurapika that ended up with Kurapika's backpack missing.

"I'll die young if you make me babysit those people." Kurapika growled.

"Oh dear. What to do, then?" Kuroro still maintained that smile and it was starting to appear creepy to her. She took one step back.

"Are you seriously considering making me join the Spiders?" Kurapika asked with guarded disgust.

"Why not? You are qualified."

"I am not! Obviously my mind doesn't work in the same way you people do." She gritted her teeth.

"That doesn't matter."

"What?"

"I said it doesn't matter."

"Oh really? Well then perhaps I'll join your Spider and sabotage all of your plans whenever you are going for missions." Kurapika tried taunting him.

"I'll make sure it won't happen."

"Can you?"

"Why can't I?"

Kurapika was at loss of words. The more she thought of it, the more she became aware that there was really very slim chance of her screwing his plans. Not only that he was obviously stronger than her—as she VERY begrudgingly admitted since years ago—they were also of the same level of intelligence. She was also painfully aware that she tended to be more reckless.

"Honestly, Kuroro, why do you want _me_ to be in your Spiders? I don't believe that they are going to sit well with the idea, anyway. After all, I've been after you people a few years back."

"Not anymore, correct?"

"I may change my mind, for all we know."

"You won't."

Kuroro stated it as if it was the most absolute truth ever existing in the world. Kurapika could not help but to gape at his bluntness. His eyes were staring right into her blue ones, and they were unwavering. It was as if he was trying to impart that statement into her head through their eye contact, brainwashing her into believing that she would not turn her back on them.

"Okay, back to the previous question: why do you want me in your Spider?"

"Do I need reason?"

"Yes, you do! Or at least, I do!" She yelled at him. God, he was still the same as ever, not even thinking of the reason 'why' when he wanted something to be done.

"If I told you that I just want you in it, will that suffice?" He asked patronisingly.

"Sensible reason, please." Kurapika almost whined.

"Is that not a sensible reason?" Kuroro challenged her.

"It's—"

Well, to be really frank, it was indeed sensible. It was a simple reason—so simple that Kurapika had a hard time believing it. He just wanted her to be near, that was all.

"Sensible." Kuroro finished with his trademark smirk.

Kurapika fought the urge to slap her forehead. She prided herself as an expert in verbal intelligent arguments, but for some reasons she could not beat Kuroro Lucifer in arguing especially when it involved sensibility. When debating about fact, she might be able to stand on even ground with him, but when it went down to this kind of talk, he always made her speechless either by his simplicity or his insensibility. It seemed that 'reasons' and 'common sense' stood little chance against him.

_Psychologically unsound freak,_ she muttered to herself grudgingly.

She was turning around as she intended to go out of the room and back to her bedroom when she caught something lying at the corner of the room. They looked familiar. When she focused her attention to those items, her eyes widened.

"Aren't those my things?"

Kuroro looked up and followed the line of her vision.

"So it seems." He answered while turning back to his book.

"What are they doing here?" It was a rather stupid question because somehow Kurapika knew where this was leading to and she was not happy with it at all.

"You should ask Lucian. He had your belongings moved here since we arrived just now."

"That little—!"

"Is it a big deal, really?"

From his voice, Kurapika could sense that he was fighting back a smile.

"You smile frighteningly a lot today, don't you?" She said accusingly with narrowed eyes.

"Do I? But more importantly, why do you keep making a big fuss over room arrangement? It's not like we haven't slept on the same bed before."

Perhaps he had meant to be straightforward and not hinting to _something_ else, but still Kurapika could not help but to blush—quite furiously, if one might add. Seeing this, Kuroro felt more compelled to tease her.

"Or maybe you are just not _used _to it?"

"What are you implying?" She wanted to snarl, but her voice came out rather quivering. Damn the traitorous vocal chord.

"What do you think I'm implying?"

There, the sly and smug grin on his face again. It was always there whenever he knew that he was cornering her in an argument, especially when it was on a topic that was a good material to fluster the Kuruta. Silence occupied the room as Kurapika glared pointedly at the man before her.

"…I'd rather not start guessing." She finally said in defeat.

"If you say so." Kuroro shrugged. He then turned back to his book.

Silence descended between them and it was not an awkward one. Kurapika stared at the book that Kuroro was holding. It looked like a textbook on something. She spotted another stack of book on the table next to him. Curious, Kurapika took one of the books and understood what kind of book it was judging from the cover. It was a history book about certain place. She raised a quizzical eyebrow at this, and though she asked nothing Kuroro could sense the questions radiating from her.

"I've been thinking, and I believe that we have two options for places to check." Kuroro explained to her quietly.

_I've been thinking,_ he said. This small detail did not escape Kurapika's notice as she knew the implication. Kuroro Lucifer had been thinking over where to find Anansi and Meta. He was really putting effort to it. Well, there was a chance that he might be hunting down Anansi to question him more about his heritage or Ishtar's legacy, but then again…She would allow herself to assume this time round.

"And those places are?"

"One is Anansi's home and the other is Ishtar's original home, though 'home' perhaps is not the best word to describe the significance of the places to them." Kuroro closed the book he was holding and covered his mouth with one hand. "Both places have the same odd of being chosen by Anansi for this little game of his, but then again I suppose he is more familiar with his own 'home' therefore he might choose to go there."

"You know them better, you take the lead." Kurapika told him as she put down the book.

Before Kuroro could reply, there was a soft knock on the door of his room. Telling whoever was knocking to come in, Kuroro locked his gaze on the door as it swung open to reveal Shalnark standing on the doorway while holding Bia's hand—who was standing on her own two feet! A huge grin was spread on Kurapika's face as she saw this, but Ku

"Shalnark. Is there a problem?" Kuroro asked his Spider coolly.

"Nah. Just here to report that I'm leaving this place."

"Visiting Fino?" Kuroro grinned knowingly at him.

"Uh…yeah, kind of… She's been demanding that I go there and tell her everything that's been happening around here." Shalnark said while scratching the back of his head.

An idea suddenly popped in Kurapika's head.

"You know, Shalnark. Fino's parents have been complaining about when you are going to propose to her." Kurapika said with a sufficiently-evil smile.

Shalnark gulped. "They did?"

"Will you?" Kuroro questioned the younger man.

"I…uh…" Shalnark's face turned tomato red. "Well anyway, Lucian wanted me to give Bia to you because he's busy monitoring Heen's progress."

"Monitoring his progress?" Kurapika asked with a frown.

"Today's the first day of him doing real exercises. He still has to be under surveillance until we're sure that he's perfectly okay to be on his own." Shalnark said, deliberately leaving out the fact that the man was now a half-cyborg, not a quarter-cyborg anymore.

"I see. Bia, come here." Kurapika said as she knelt down and extended her arms to her. She was positively excited to see the previously disabled girl standing on her two feet like any other normal little girls.

The white-haired mute girl released Shalnark's hand and began tottering towards the blonde. It was clear on Kurapika's face that she was extremely delighted to see Bia walking on her own without anyone's support. Kuroro, however, was looking at the scene quite disinterestedly. When Bia reached Kurapika, the latter scooped the former in her arms but did not carry her for long. She quickly dumped the girl on Kuroro's laps.

Kuroro gave Kurapika a sharp questioning look, but Kurapika merely replied with a "you haven't seen her at all since we came back." Kuroro then shot her an annoyed "why should I be concerned about that?"

"Oh, and Lucian said Bia drew this and he told me to give it to you, Danchou." Shalnark said without further elaboration.

He crossed the room and handed a folded paper to Kuroro. As per instructed by the vampire, Shalnark quickly excused himself and somewhat bolted out of the room. While Kurapika stared at Shalnark's odd behaviour, Kuroro unfolded the paper and stared at it. He raised both eyebrows when he looked at the paper and he was clearly shocked out of his shell. Kurapika observed the change of his expression and could not help but to take the paper from his hand and look at it herself. Her lips quivered when she saw the picture, and she tried to smother her laughter as best as she could, though it was not very effective in the end.

On the paper was a drawing crudely made by the hands of a little child that depicted two figures: one had black bush for the hair, big black eyes, a black cross sign on the head and black attire while the other hand had yellow hair and big blue eyes. Above the all-black figure was the bold lettering DAD, while the other figure had the word MOM above it. It was a classical drawing that children made of their parents.

Kuroro Lucifer was not pleased with it. Kurapika Kuruta found it terrific.

"I don't find this funny at all." Kuroro said dryly while glaring mildly at the little white-haired girl in his arm.

"Don't you?" Kurapika said amidst her laughing session. She then approached Bia and ruffled her hair. "So Daddy's here, huh? Bia loves Daddy?" She burst out laughing when she saw the priceless expression on Kuroro's face.

"Kurapika." Kuroro was near glowering, which he rarely did. "Take this kid with you."

"Oh, Daddy's scary now. Daddy is mad so Mommy will leave now. Bia be a good girl for Daddy, okay?" Kurapika said in a cooing voice before she made a mad dash to the door and slammed it closed behind her. She readily accepted the label 'Mom' that Bia had bequeathed to her because after all she was indeed a mother.

"Kurapika!" Kuroro yelled at Kurapika.

"Think of it as your first lesson on parenting!" Kurapika yelled back from behind the door, but it was obvious from the volume of the voice that she was going away from the room.

Kuroro glared at the door intense enough that it might combust. A tug on his shirt made him turn back to the little girl who was clinging to him. She had an innocent expressionless face; the tell-tale that she did not understand what was happening. Despite his glare at her, she did not flinch. She merely stared at him with her big hazel eyes.

"I am not your father." He said pointedly.

Bia frowned slightly and shook her head. She then buried her face to the fabric of Kuroro's shirt and her clutch on his shirt tightened. Kuroro Lucifer then REALLY considered killing that girl right there right then, but it would do him no good. He would get rid of one annoying little girl but another female would be swearing to hunt him down for revenge. He knew better than to make Kurapika go around swearing that she would go on vendetta, no matter who the subject was. Kurapika and the concept of revenge would be better off as far away as possible. The last time she swore on revenge, it had resulted on years of troubles.

But did he really have to put up with _this_?

* * *

He had just reached Muntenia's international airport when the message alert of his cell phone buzzed. Shalnark raised a quizzical eyebrow when he saw the sender's ID—it was from Danchou. The younger Spider found it strange; it was not like Kuroro Lucifer to give him a message; which he suspected was another instruction, just after a meeting. Well, just now it was not exactly a meeting but still… Dismissing the irrelevant thoughts, Shalnark opened the message and perused it, and then he pursed his lips in annoyance. The message was:

_**Sender: **__Danchou_

_**Message: **__I'm leaving you in charge of introducing our newest member to the others. _

While the time limit was not mentioned, it did not mean that Shalnark could just dilly-dally and carry out the duty when he felt like it. On the contrary, when Danchou did not specify the time limit, it could only mean: 1) do it now, or 2) do it before the next meeting.

With a sigh, Shalnark dialled a certain number. He waited until the call was answered, and finally a voice barked through the receiver.

_[What? You just left the place and now you're bugging me already?]_

"…If you are this grouchy, then something has just happened?"

_[Oh, yeah something very pleasant just happened a few moments ago.] _The voice said sarcastically. _[Kurapika decided to pay me a visit and gave me a 'service'.]_

"A service?" Shalnark asked dubiously. He could imagine what kind of 'service' Kurapika would give, so he would spare the poor man the torture of describing the 'service to him. "Lucian, what have you done this time round?"

_[Are you accusing me of doing something illegal?]_ The vampire retorted in indignation through the speaker.

"Try 'illegal in Kurapika's dictionary'."Shalnark said with slight snicker.

_[Hey, I'm just doing them a favour, okay?]_

"Obviously your definition of 'favour' is not agreeable to Kurapika's definition." Shalnark said with a grin. "Anyway, I'm calling you since I want to talk with our new guy."

_[YOUR new guy, you mean.]_ Lucian said with a snort. _[Good timing, I've just done with the regular check-up and he's here. I'll pass the phone to him.]_

There was a period of silence before another voice spoke through the receiver.

_[Shalnark?]_

"Hey, Heen. How's it going?"

_[I'm now officially done with the regular check-up since my poor doctor here deems me as perfectly stable.]_ Heen replied, and Shalnark could feel the smile from the half-cyborg. It seemed that Heen was there to witness Kurapika giving her infamous 'service' to Lucian.

"Good. Danchou asked me to introduce you to the other Spiders. I'll be waiting for you here in the airport, so pack up now and say goodbye to your 'poor doctor'."

_[No problem. I don't have any belongings with me anyway, so I can just leave now. See you in the airport then.]_

"Good." Shalnark nodded with satisfaction. It seemed that Heen was not hard at all to handle, unlike some of the more-insane-than-anything-else Spiders. While he had no problems with them and their quirky attitudes—admittedly he even enjoyed seeing them making a fool out of themselves—he had to admit that they gave him headaches sometimes.

_[Do you want me to pass the phone to Lucian again?]_

"Nah. Tell him for me I say 'see you again'."

_[Will do.]_

Then the call was ended with a low beep. Without wasting another minute, Shalnark quickly texted a message for his fellow Spiders that were scattered all over the globe with the short message saying that they would be having a short meeting without Danchou's presence, and he did not forget to embellish the message with a 'DANCHOU'S ORDER' at the very end. Goodness knew that if not for those two magic words, the Spiders would surely ditch the meeting.

Not bothering to think too much, Shalnark lazily stated the Prancing Pony as the meeting place and 'next Monday' as the meeting time. Since Danchou had given him the full permission to handle the introduction as he deemed suitable—seeing that he did not put any specific instructions in the message— Shalnark thought that he might as well abuse it to his convenience.

* * *

_Ishtar?_

It was just a whisper in his mind, but usually it was enough to elicit some response from the presence that used to linger so strongly at the back of his mind. Now that presence was so vague and faint it was almost like a mist. It scared Meta.

_Ishtar?_

This time, he inwardly called out to her with stronger voice and the presence finally stirred.

_**Yes, Meta?**_

The voice sounded so exhausted and sluggish—so unlike the strong and firm voice that he was very used to.

_Are you alright? You sound so tired. _

_**I'm okay, sweetheart. I'm just…tired. Like you say.**_

Meta tilted his head in confusion. How come a voice like her could be tired? He did not understand it.

_How come?_ He finally asked.

_**Well, let's just say that…my battery is running out…**_

_Battery? You run on battery?_ Meta had his mouth formed into an 'O' while his face was the epitome of admiration.

…_**Forget I said that. Anyway, looks like you're getting attached to that Ksa boy, aren't you?**_

True enough, as Meta was engaged in a 'telekinetic' conversation with Ishtar, physically he was inside the temple in Tichitt Walatta. Meta had earlier said that he was tired and wanted a break from their exploration of the vast ruin. Ksa had agreed and he was gone for a while to search for food for the boy's snack.

_Yeah! Ksa is very cool!_ The boy chirped excitedly. He then began describing Ksa's awesomeness to Ishtar in how exaggerated a four-years-old could be. Ishtar merely listened to his blabbering while saying nothing to interrupt him. Finally, when the boy had seemed to cool off from his excitement, Ishtar asked:

_**You like him very much?**_

_Of course!_ Meta answered with a beam.

_**Do you trust him?**_

_Sure!_ He nodded without hesitant, although it might as well that he did not fully understand the true depth of 'trust' that Ishtar was referring to.

_**Will you entrust your life to him?**_

…_Huh?_

"Meta."

It was not Ksa's voice and Meta knew it. However, he still recognised that voice. With face lit up in excitement, Meta sprung to his feet and turned to dash towards the owner of that voice.

"Anansi!"

He then lunged at the very tall man—who had graciously gone on one knee so that he was eye-level to the four-years-old—and gave him a bone-crushing hug. Meta squealed in delight as he tried to squeeze the lanky man in his embrace. Anansi returned the embrace by patting the boy's small shoulders.

"Hey, my boy. Are you being a good boy while I'm away?"

"I am!" Meta grinned at him from ear to ear. "You can ask Grandma and Ksa!"

"Ksa?" There was a strange glint in Anansi's eyes, before his facial expression settled back to the usual one. "Oh, I see that you've met him. How do you like him?"

"He's nice! Look, he even gave me my birthmark!" Meta proudly showed his palm that bore the birthmark.

"Ah, very nice." Anansi said while appraising the birthmark. It looked uncannily identical to Kuroro's. "Actually, he didn't give it to you. It has been with you all along, Ksa only made it visible to you."

"Hm…" Meta obviously did not really understand the concept, seeing that he tilted his head sideways and gave Anansi a rather blank look.

"So what are you doing here all alone in this temple?" Anansi changed the topic as he saw it as pointless to explain the whole concept to the boy. He was only four-years-old, after all.

"I'm waiting for Ksa! He said he's getting some food since I'm tired from exploring this place."

"And you just sit down here doing nothing while you wait for him?" Anansi asked dubiously with a raised eyebrow. No matter how tired the boy was, he always had the endless supply of energy to roam and bounce around. If his energy was at its limit, he would simply go to sleep to restore his energy, or eat some sweet food. The boy was amazingly as simple as that.

"Not really…I was talking to Ishtar. She sounds so tired!" Meta then tugged at the fabric that hung loosely around Anansi's shoulder. "Do you know what's wrong with her? She really _really_ sounds really tired."

Under normal circumstances, Anansi would have laughed at the way the boy emphasised on the 'really', but the context of his query was not something that he could lightly handle.

"And what did she say about it?"

"She said her battery is running out. I didn't know that she runs on battery." Meta confessed innocently.

"No, she doesn't run on battery. It's just a way of saying that…" Anansi was explaining rather amusedly when he suddenly realised what he was doing. He quickly stopped his explanation, never finishing his sentence.

"That?" Meta urged him to continue.

"That she's simply very tired." Anansi decided to settle on that.

Anansi could not possibly tell the boy that Ishtar was dying. One possibility was that the boy would not understand what it meant. Another possibility was that if or when the boy understood it, he could experience a kind of breakdown. He knew that Ishtar had been with him constantly; she was almost a part of him now. Even Ishtar's lack of presence was already bothering him so much, Anansi could not bear to imagine how the boy would react once he knew that 'that part of him' was dying, let alone how it would be when Isthar's presence finally departed from the material world for good.

"Hooo…" The boy nodded slowly, as if indicating that he really understood what he was saying and implying.

"So you are waiting for Ksa here. Say, how much do you like him?"

"You know, you are asking the same thing that Ishtar has been asking me earlier." Meta pointed out.

"Really? And what else did she ask you?"

"She asked me if I trust Ksa or not, so I told her that of course I do!"

Anansi chuckled at Meta's look of indignation, as if Ishtar had insulted him and he had felt wronged. How very cute of him. "And what else?"

"She asked me this weird question I don't understand. She asked me if I will entrust my life to him. What does it mean, Anansi?" Meta asked with his innocent face.

Hearing this, Anansi's eyes widened in disbelief.

_What is she thinking? Meta can't possibly understand that kind of question! He is too young to understand that kind of concept. Heck, he doesn't even understand the meaning of that question, let alone the concept of this ritual…_

"Anansi?"

But perhaps he ought to give it a shot.

"Well, she's asking if you want to share your life with him or not, like you two will be sharing one life."

"One life for the two of us, meaning each of us will only have half life? Will it be enough?"

Expectedly, Meta did not understand.

"Nevermind, I'll explain it when the time comes."

"What time?"

"…Forget I said that."

"Hey, Ishtar said that too!"

Anansi did not know what to say. Fortunately, he detected another presence coming closer to their site.

"It seems that Ksa is back." Anansi said while turning his attention to one of the door that led to that particular room.

True enough, a small figure emerged from the darkness of the tunnel beyond that door. Ksa was walking towards them with bountiful of fruits in his arms. It seemed as if he had carried all fruits as much as his arms could afford. When he saw Anansi with Meta, his face showed a hint of surprise and he quickly bowed his head at the senior spider incarnation.

"Master Anansi. It's a pleasure to see you again after so long." Ksa greeted him with undeniable respect and reverence in his husky voice. Anansi nodded in recognition of his greeting, but before he could offer his own greeting, Meta had outdone him.

"Ksa! You're back!"

Thoughtlessly, Meta detached himself from Anansi and began rushing towards Ksa. It was plainly obvious that he was going to tackle Ksa to give him a bone-crushing hug like the one he gave to Anansi earlier. Just as Meta launched himself to Ksa—who had his hands full with all the fruits—another set of limbs sprouted from Ksa's sides to grab hold of the ecstatic boy, effectively preventing any collision between the two of them.

"Tut, Meta. You are going to spoil the fruits if you have really crashed into me head-on like that." Ksa mildly reprimanded the younger boy.

"Fruits!" Meta squealed, but then he realised that something is strange about his new friend. After a few seconds, he knew what was different. "Ksa! You have four arms!"

"So I do." With that, Ksa released his hold on Meta and sprouted yet another two sets of arms. "I can have up to eight arms in total."

"WOOOOOOW! THAT'S SOOOOO AWESOME!" Meta boomed with uncontained fascination at this new discovery.

"But Master Anansi can have up to twelve arms in total." Ksa said more proudly.

"Really?" Meta turned to Anansi and with his eyes pleaded at him to prove Ksa's statement.

With a shrug, Anansi pulled out all of his twelve arms. He did so with exaggerated fashion to entertain the young boy and it worked wonders. The boy was absolutely thrilled and taken in by his 'performance'. With a playful grin, Anansi told him that he could juggle all the fruits that Ksa had brought easily. At this, Ksa gave a very displeased look.

"Food is not to be played around with, Master." He stated with stern voice.

"Ah, don't be so stuck up, Ksa. Come on, throw me the fruits."

Very reluctantly but knowing full well that he could not deny his lord's order, Ksa threw him the fruits with all his four arms. Anansi effortlessly caught them and began juggling them. Needless to say that Meta went into a frenzied laughing session that was bordering hysterical.

After Anansi was done entertaining Meta (he could not bear being glared at Ksa for too long because it really reminded him of how Kurapika would glare disapprovingly), they settled down to finish all the fruits that Ksa had brought. While eating, Meta had tried to ask Ksa something but his words turned gibberish and utterly incoherent.

"Swallow your food first before you talk, Meta."

Obeying him, Meta quickly swallowed his food and gave Ksa a suspicious look.

"You sound so much like Mom."

Anansi gave a loud snort at this and the corner of Ksa's mouth twitched.

"Is that what you are trying to tell me earlier?"

"No. I'm just asking you if you know what 'entrust your life to him' means."

Ksa raised his eyebrows in confusion and looked at his senior for guidance.

"I think it's referring to _the_ ritual." Anansi quietly told him.

"Ah…I'll explain when you are older, Meta." Ksa said deadpan.

"Why?" Meta frowned unhappily.

"Because that's the rule."

"Oh, okay."

Anansi could not believe this. It seemed that Ksa had more insight on how to deal with the ridiculously curious little blond boy than Anansi did. He had wisely decided not to even try explaining the concept to the boy, knowing full well that the boy would never understand it considering his age. Above all, Anansi was surprised that the reason 'that's the rule' worked wonders with the boy. He could only guess that it was a mindset that had been implanted inside the boy's brain because of his (strict) mother's teaching.

* * *

"What's the meaning of this?" She asked the two men demandingly.

"You should know that I'm more annoyed than you are." Kuroro said grumpily as he glared at his vampire friend with his dark eyes. Sometimes he wished that his eyes really had the ability to swallow people up.

They already had their meagre belongings packed and they were ready to leave at any moment's notice (or more like anytime Kuroro deemed as suitable), but they were presented with yet another problem—or rather, another tag-along.

Seated on top of Gamayun's back—who had volunteered to take them to the border of Muntenia to cut short the time taken to reach their next destination—was the white-haired little girl who was still as mute as ever but had obviously regained her vigour and stamina. She was now even capable of walking on her own two feet without falling or staggering. It was all thanks to the relentless exercises subjected to her by Kurapika and the muscle-stimulant drugs that Lucian had periodically injected into her. However, all these were beside the point.

What prompted Kurapika's question was that it seemed that Bia had been set for a journey with Kurapika and Kuroro. The two of them had planned on leaving Bia in the country since she was beginning to adapt well with the vampire, and hopefully over time with the people there. After all, it took time for a traumatised child to adapt to her surroundings. However, Lucian just had to ruin that plan—although it was not like he had been informed beforehand of this plan, anyway.

"You are taking her with you. End of discussion. Period." Lucian said while crossing his arms defiantly, showing that he was not leaving any rooms for negotiation for that matter.

"Give me a sensible reason for that, then." Kurapika also crossed her arms and glared at him. This time, Lucian was not fazed.

"I can ask you the same thing. Why do you think of leaving this kid with me here? My house is not an orphanage, and I don't work for charity. I'm by no means a philanthropist, just so you know, _fată_ (girl)."

"I won't believe it when a vampire declares himself a philanthropist for humans." Kurapika said dryly. "If a vampire starts taking in human children, he/she may just do it for the sake of stocking up blood supply."

"I see that you understand how some vampires do their business." Lucian said with equally dryness in his voice.

"Give her to Heen. She's her sister, for goodness' sake!"

"He's already gone with Shalnark."

"Tsch!" Kurapika clucked her tongue irritably. "Don't you have an orphanage or something like that in town?"

"We don't. Any parentless children are taken in by other families, so there's no need for orphanages. That's how it works here. This town is just a small town." Lucian said.

"Then ask one of them to adopt her!"

"You think I will let my people to take in a dangerous little creature like her; who barely has any sufficient control over her emotion and Nen power? _Nu, draga mea, nu cred acest lucru_ (no, my dear, I don't think so)." Lucian said rather vehemently.

"Then ask the doctors or the nurses to take care of her. Surely they know how to handle children with unstable emotions?"

"But none of them know how to deal with Nen."

"Put on the Nen-sealing bracelet on her, then!" Kurapika was getting exasperated with this discussion.

"It's not a healthy thing to do, Kurapika."

Surprisingly, it was Kuroro who spoke up. Kurapika turned to Kuroro with a surprised look on her face. She knew that Kuroro was against taking along the mute (and useless, in Kuroro's opinion, although she was a Nen-user) white-haired girl the most. Despite being a Nen-user, she was unstable physically, mentally, and psychologically. It was a big no-no to let such vulnerable child go along with them in their precarious journey.

"I know how it feels to be forcefully denied of my Nen power for a prolonged period of time. It didn't affect me that much because I'm who I am," Kuroro said.

_Conceited bastard,_ Kurapika thought in a flash.

"But Bia is a different case. She is more vulnerable than children of her age; especially mentally. If she's denied of her Nen for too long, she will get too frustrated and she might lose her sanity for good. You know that Nen is part of yourself. It is not an option to put the Nen-sealing bracelet on her except for short-term emergencies."

Kurapika was positively flabbergasted. Was Kuroro saying all those in consideration of Bia's well-being. That was something that she had never expected of him. She had expected him not to give a shred of thought or consideration, seeing how irritated he was after she had dumped Bia on him the last time.

"Then put it on when she's throwing her tantrums?"

"The moment you guys leave her behind, she'll start throwing tantrums and she won't stop for hours, even days. She's seen you packing up your things, and I'm surprised about this myself but apparently this girl has the intelligent to deduce that you are leaving for good this time round, unlike the last time. How long do you expect until she stops throwing tantrums? By that time, I'm afraid that she'll be losing grip on reality already I her Nen is forcefully sealed away. I'm afraid that she's already too attached to the two of you."

"Your fault." Kuroro muttered to Kurapika accusingly.

"He said 'the two of you', meaning you are just as guilty in this as I am." Kurapika retorted with a glare.

"_Anyway_," Lucian said out lout to earn back the two's attention, "there's no turning back now. You have to take that kid with you."

Kurapika and Kuroro looked at each other, and then they both turned to look at Bia. She still had the expressionless face on her, but she was now considerably healthier and stronger than the first time when they rescued her from that abominable tank in Bensalem. At least now she had a shine in her hazel eyes.

_Come on, folks, don't be so cold-hearted. She doesn't seem like a trouble to me. Look, she's such a sweet quiet little girl_, Gamayun commented as she took a long glance at the girl on her back.

"You haven't seen when she starts throwing tantrums…" Kurapika said with a groan. "But it looks like we really have no choice," Kurapika said with a sigh as she started walking towards the waiting bird-human hybrid.

"She's your responsibility." Kuroro said to her as he walked behind her.

"Excuse me? Didn't you hear what he just said? He said 'the two of you', meaning you are in this as well! Take some responsibility, will you?"

"I never actively tried to win her affection."

"Oh really? Then what's with that night when you urged her to walk on her own?"

"That's—"

And so they continued bickering and arguing like some old married couple. Lucian was relieved to see this again, as he recognised this as the same pattern he had seen a few years back when they were still stuck together in trying to find all of the Scarlet Eyes scattered all over the world. Even as Gamayun had taken them towards the border of Muntenia, a thought still lingered in Lucian's head:

How would it be with an additional of an emotionally unstable mute little girl who adamantly believed that they were her parents?

Lucian walked back to his mansion while laughing his head off.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Yes I'm still alive and yes Angel's Prayer is still on-going. It's been on a short hiatus 'coz I've just finished my term assessment and it was KILLING me. Definitely no time to write any more chapters. Sorry for the super delay, people. I don't know if this chapter is up to your expectations after such a long delay, but well… I hope you enjoy it. I think Kurapika is a bit OOC here at the part with Bia's drawing of 'Mom and Dad', but I just think that people change so even characters in stories will have to change to certain extent as well._

_Any questions I'll entertain you. Please don't butcher me for the super late update. I just checked that it's almost one month since the last time I updated! Oh dear me... My time management really sucks BIG TIME._

_**Next:**__ In the end, Bia really tagged along with the two of them. They had decided on a destination based on Kuroro's consideration. Which would it be; Anansi's home or Ishtar's original home? Also, what did Anansi, Ishtar, and Ksa meant with the ritual? What did it have to do with Meta? _


	22. Chapter 20: Eventually

_**Disclaimer: **__Never mine._

_**Story so far:**__ In the end, both Kuroro and Kurapika had to settle with Bia tagging along in their journey. Meanwhile, Anansi, Ishtar, Iktomi, and even Ksa, seemed to be having a kind of similar thought—or rather schemes—weaved for Meta. Most importantly, though, would they finally be able to meet since their separation in Yorkshin?_

_**Author's Note: **__Just to remind you, Kurapika here is 25 and Kuroro is 34. Just a guide =P_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 20**

_**EVENTUALLY**_

_**

* * *

**_

"It's. So. Freaking. HOT!" She half-screamed half-whined.

"Complaining out loud won't help you with the heat." He responded with dry voice. "We are already near the edge of the savannah. If I remember correctly, Tichitt Walata is only a few hours walk away from our position here."

"And just how many years ago was the last time you visited that village?"

"About 20 years ago."

"...Wonderful…"

The two of them were walking down a very arid steppe landscape with the sun blazing just above them, intent of grilling them thoroughly. Kurapika was covering herself with a kind of heat-resistant fabric that Kuroro had recommended her to bring before they departed from Muntenia because he knew of the climate. Kuroro and Bia were clad in similar fabric but Kurapika still could not fathom how the man had not been thoroughly baked inside and out when he was clad in a completely _black_ fabric from head to toe. Okay, she knew that he had some things with black colour, but this was just going to the extreme! Hell, just seeing him in black was already making her feel even hotter and warmer. She decided to look at either her feet or the horizon; wholeheartedly and purposefully avoided seeing the man-in-black.

There were actually three of them, but essentially only two of them were walking since Bia was—right at that moment—being carried by Kuroro Lucifer. An hour ago she was in Kurapika's arms but she decided that—after carrying Bia for a good couple of hours—she was going to faint from the heat and forcefully transferred her to Kuroro's arms since the man seemed to be adapting so perfectly well with the heat. Bia was doing fine initially, but she was still not up for the harsh environment of the place. If it was even harsh to Kurapika, it would be torture to the little girl.

"Is she doing fine?" Kurapika asked tiredly as she still refused to look Kuroro due to his black fabric.

"Check her yourself." He said flatly, with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"Check her for me. I don't want to be near you at the moment." She said with slurry voice. True enough, she had been keeping a few metres distance from him because of—again—his black fabric.

"So you are fine being near me at any other moment."

_In this kind of weather, he still has the nerve to be so smart-mouthed…_Kurapika groaned.

"Whatever. How's Bia?"

In response to her query, Kuroro looked down at the child who was curling in his arms limply like little kitten. She was clad in her beige garments, carefully tucked so that she would not be touching even a shred of Kuroro's black fabric—courtesy to Kurapika's consideration—for fear that his clothe might unfortunately 'overheat' her. Her eyelids were heavy and her hazel eyes seemed hazy and dull, but he could feel that she was breathing.

"Seems fine to me."

Kurapika turned to stare at him dubiously. For all she knew, Bia might be having a fever and Kuroro might just dismiss it with 'it's just the weather' excuse. Suddenly, Kuroro readjusted his arms and slung his bag forward. With one hand, he rummaged through the bag and finally pulled out a bottle of water. Kurapika raised her eyebrows at this, but said nothing and continued observing.

With one arm holding Bia closely to his body so that she would not fall over, Kuroro opened the lid of the bottle with the other hand and lifted the mouth of the bottle to Bia's dry lips. He said nothing, but one touch of the cool liquid to her lips prompted Bia to open her mouth further. Kuroro tilted the bottle so that a bit of water poured onto her cracking lips; just enough to wet them. He let her drink a bit of the water before he shoved the bottle back into his bag and returned the bag to its previous position. By then, Kurapika was wide-eyed.

Granted that she knew that Kuroro was well aware that she would chew his head off if Bia died while in his 'care', but for that seemingly heartless man to go out of his way to treat the vulnerable girl in such kindly and gentle manner? She did not even have to nag at him until his ears almost bled to do it!

"Well, I wouldn't have guessed…" She murmured to herself, but Kuroro heard her voice trailing away.

"What?"

"Nothing." She said quickly. "It's just so damn dry here."

"It wouldn't be as bad once we enter the savannah."

_Amen,_ she prayed. A few more hours in the heat and she would be a roasted dish.

* * *

"Old man, they are coming." A voice stated.

There was no reply, but of course there would be none. In the room where Iktomi; the owner of the voice, was standing, there was nobody else except him. Yet, Iktomi spoke as if there was someone there to respond to him.

Evidently, he was answered not verbally but by action. The atmosphere seemed to distort slightly before a slit was formed in the air. Yes, the air was split. The thin smooth crack then expanded, like a slit on a plastic sheet that was being pulled aside. Darkness spilled from within the enclosure of that slit, and a person emerged from that solid darkness—a man with platinum gold hair and dark tanned skin. Rich fabric touched the dusty floor as he landed on the ground with both legs. Seeing the person's appearance, Iktomi whistled in admiration.

"I can sense them." The person who had just emerged from the darkness; who was none other than Anansi himself, announced to nobody in particular.

The slit in the air from earlier was an entrance that he had created; a gateway between the material world and the void space that was his haven of solitude. Despite being in a completely different dimension, Anansi still had heard Iktomi's voice. While he was in there, he was completely detached from the material world except for several single strands that he had decided to stick on some particular things. This time, he had stuck a strand on Iktomi. Had he not done that, he would have lost track of the time passing by in the material world. The law of time did not apply to the void space of his creation, after all.

"So, old man, how are we going to welcome them?"

"As much as I want to welcome them in the warmest way possible, there is not much time left. Basille is already standing on her last leg." Anansi said grimly, matching his grim visage.

_Lady Luck is on your side, Kuroro Lucifer,_ Iktomi thought with slight amusement yet sincere congratulation. Being Anansi's so-called assistant for centuries, Iktomi knew just what 'warmest welcome' meant in the eldest's dictionary: it meant anything grandiose and festive to the maximum. If Kuroro Lucifer was still the same boy as he had once met about 20 years ago, then 'warm welcome' from Anansi would be the last thing on earth he would want to encounter.

"By the way, Meta sure is hitting it well with Ksa. So darn well, don't you think? Like they are made for each other." Iktomi said with a hint of something in his voice.

Anansi stopped in his track for a few fleeting seconds, but he said nothing and wordlessly resumed his walking his way. Iktomi was silent even a few minutes after Anansi had closed the door behind him. He then sighed and shook his head in disbelief.

"Really. This is suicidal. Doing that ritual with someone whom you have not bonded yet. This is plain madness."

Okay, correction. Iktomi knew that Anansi did have some bonds with this Kuroro Lucifer person, considering that he had known him since his childhood. Then again, was that bond sufficient at all? The outcome was definitely something that he had to see with his own two eyes.

* * *

Finally, FINALLY, they reached Tichitt Walata. It took them two straight hours of non-stop walking across a VERY dry savanahh and Kurapika was positive that she was already three-quarter grilled. She dragged her feet tiredly as they walked into the quiet sand-plagued village. With heavy-lidded eyes, she looked around the village and for some reasons was not so surprised to see the village so quiet and almost deserted. Who in their right mind would be out in the open when the sun was being so evil, anyway?

Kuroro, however, did not seem to be in the same opinion as she was.

He walked slower than she did, and his eyes were scanning the village carefully. It was as if something was missing and he was trying to figure out what was off. Sensing his hesitance when he stepped into the village, Kurapika dropped her pace until she fell back to a sluggish walk next to him.

"A penny for your thoughts?" She drawled tiredly.

"Something's not right with this village."

"Oh really?" She voiced out half-heartedly while glancing around the village again. "But of course things change after 20 years."

"No. The village is giving a different vibe." Kuroro stated evenly, as if the bad premonition did not bother him in the slightest and he was just saying that for the sake of explaining to Kurapika—which perhaps was the case.

"How so?"

Kuroro looked around again. The village was orderly and there were no traces of possible fights or battles. There were no dead bodies or skeletons, the village was clean, everything seemed normal except for the unnerving absence of the residents. It seemed more like the people had been evacuated for some time ago.

Sensing that no response was forthcoming any time soon from the raven-haired man—as she knew that he would not carelessly jump into conclusions until he had enough data and information to substantiate his ideas—Kurapika simply shrugged and decided to wait. He would tell her when he was confident with his conclusions.

"Let's get under the shade first. The heat is frizzling my brains." Kurapika said softly as she moved to an old abandoned house that had an overhead shelter made of stone.

She noted that the architecture of the building was rather ancient so she had to guess that the civilization had not been touched by modernity. So the residents of the ghost village had to be some tribes who had adopted policy of self-isolation. She would love to find out about this particular civilization, but she would interrogate Kuroro—and perhaps Anansi—later when she had done her job.

Kurapika was grateful that Kuroro was still holding Bia in his arms because then she was free to use her Dowsing Chain to track down Meta. Once they were under the shade, Kurapika released her Nen and let the said chain dropped from her fingers with a melodious clink. She closed her eyes and began concentrating on Meta. Kuroro observed the Dowsing Chain with eyes filled with curiosity. He had seen her using that ability, but that was years ago. For some reasons, Bia had been aroused from her drowsiness and she sat up erect in Kuroro's arms, looking at Kurapika and her Dowsing Chain with big intrigued eyes.

After a few seconds had passed, the pendulum started shuddering like a person shivering in cold. Bia looked on with slight sign of fascination on her usually expressionless face. A few more seconds flew by, and the pendulum started moving to a certain direction and was suspended in that odd angle. Kuroro looked up at the direction that the pendulum was showing, and he was not surprised to note that the pendulum was pointing to the direction of the temple residing not far from the village. Kurapika had opened her eyes and looked at the same direction.

"What's over there?" She asked while withdrawing her Nen.

"An ancient temple." He answered simply without elaboration.

"Any connection with Anansi?"

"I heard that the people here worship animal spirits like gods. That temple was perhaps built for that purpose." Kuroro said as he started walking towards that direction.

They walked further into the heart of the village in silence. Kuroro's eyes were fixed on whatever was in front of him and he did not seem to be thinking of anything in particular. Kurapika, however, started darting her attention here and there throughout the village. She started to agree with Kuroro's earlier remark about the village giving odd vibe. The village did give her the creeps.

The dry wind blew lifelessly, disturbing stacks of sands that had accumulated over the years. The desolate atmosphere reminded her of the ruins of the Kuruta village years ago when she first set out for her path of vendetta. The last time she visited the place to visit the graves, however, the whole place was raided by the force of Nature and almost everything was covered in greeneries. It added a touch of life to the destruction-ridden place, and she was grateful for it. This place, however, seemed as if any seeds of life would not be able to grow at all. It was that depressing.

Suddenly, Kurapika felt the urge to get out of that place as soon as possible. She did not like the village; not at the very last bit. Unbeknownst to her, Bia was sharing the same feeling as well. She buried her face in Kuroro's shoulder; ignoring the heat from the black fabric, as she clutched at the garment with her small fists.

About fifteen minutes later they were finally out of the spooky village and, a few metres before them, was the entrance to the temple. Even from that distance, they could spot a person sitting on top of a boulder just next to the entrance of the temple. Judging from his attire and appearance—dark tanned skin, mass of curly coal black hair, tribal outfit, tribal markings, tribal accessories—Kurapika guessed that he was a native. When they were close enough to be able to perceive the stranger's face, however, Kuroro suddenly stopped.

"Iktomi." He stated with slight distaste in his voice; which did not go unnoticed by the ever perceptive Kurapika.

She gave the man standing next to her a brief sideways glance—noting the faintest hint of dislike in his abysmally dark eyes—before focusing on the stranger. The native man had a Cheshire cat grin on his youthful face and with the tribal markings all over his body, he looked like the very personification of mischief. Kurapika could practically feel the aura of mischief radiating from him as if it was something tangible. She would not have minded it if not for the disturbing gleam in the man's oddly faceted eyes. Those eyes reminded her of Anansi's. Glancing down at her ring, her suspicion was confirmed when she saw how the blackness of the onyx stone had turned bright scarlet.

"Who?" She whispered to Kuroro but he never answered. If anything, she could feel him going stiff the moment he recognised the other man's identity. Not out of fear, she noted, but more like extreme wariness.

"Wow, you still remember me? What astounding memory! The last time we met was a good 20 years ago!" Iktomi clapped his hand in genuine surprise. "As expected of you, eh?"

"Why are you here?"

"What kind of a question is that? This is my home, dude." Iktomi laughed.

"Where are Anansi and the boy?"

"Straight down to business, aren't we? The old man is inside the temple, he's waiting for you. As for Meta, well, I don't know where he is. Should be soooomewhere inside the temple." He grinned broadly. "Why don't you just go inside and find them yourself? Shouldn't be a problem for the two of you, no?"

Kurapika glanced at Kuroro unsurely, but Kuroro's eyes were set firm on Iktomi's face with clear distrust in his eyes. It made Kurapika wonder just how dangerous this man was—Kuroro Lucifer did not usually display such blatant distrust to just anybody. He surely had outrageously strong reason to be so wary towards this Iktomi person.

"Hey, hey. Why are you giving me that look? You don't believe me?"

"Should I believe you when 20 years ago you set booby traps all over the place and tried to get me caught up in those?" Kuroro said while narrowing his eyes.

It was not like he was afraid; it was more like he did not want to deal with the unnecessary where he could avoid it. Iktomi was the epitome of such unwanted troubles, just like Anansi was sometimes. Twenty years ago he was still a clumsy teenager, still far from polishing his skills; consequently Iktomi's booby traps almost killed him for a number of times.

Hearing Kuroro's dry words, the first thing that came to Kurapika's mind was: do not make acquaintance of this dangerous weirdo.

"Oh my. Don't tell me that even after 20 years, you still remember that incident? Okay, correction: your memory is terrifying." Iktomi shuddered, but continued, "well, go ahead. I didn't set any booby traps, honest. Old man's order is to usher you inside, not to play pranks on you. If I do otherwise, he'll gouge out my entrails and dry them under this blazing sun."

This Iktomi person said it with such light attitude that Kurapika had the feeling that it might have happened for some times before. She shuddered at the thought, but to her Anansi did not seem like the type who could go to that extreme. But then again…this was Anansi, the manifestation of exaggeration to the maximum. Perhaps he would do that. She just could not figure him doing something so utterly gross.

"What are you waiting for? Go in, hurry up." Iktomi said while fidgeting impatiently. "Oh? Is that a little human girl you have in your arms? What, so you have a daughter as well, Kuroro Lucifer?"

Kurapika did not even try to hold her snicker while seeing how Kuroro's eyes widened in pure surprise. Did she see a very _very_ faint blush on his cheeks? The next second, however, Kuroro was emitting a deadly shut-up-or-I'll-make-you-feel-sorry-that-you-were-born aura directed mostly at Iktomi but it had quite an impression on her as well. Both victims swallowed and said nothing to provoke the Spider Head more. Bia, however, was simply stared at the strange man before her with unblinking eyes as if unaffected by Kuroro's intimidating aura. Perhaps she was really oblivious of it because she did not understand what was going on despite being in such close proximity with the source.

"Let's go in." Kuroro said curtly as he walked past a stunned Iktomi.

Wordlessly Kurapika followed after the man and both of the disappeared into the darkness of the temple beyond the gate. Iktomi could only heave a sigh of relief when Kuroro's presence finally disappeared from the vicinity.

"Man, what a scary boy! But…" He scratched his chin while a perverted smile bloomed on his face, "his girl is sure really cute."

_Iktomi, no dirty thoughts, please,_ a voice scolded him in his mind.

"Ee! Old man, stop peeking into my thoughts!"

_Lay one finger on Kurapika, and I won't rescue you from Kuroro when he mangles you into unrecognisable bits_, said the voice again with dead serious tone.

Iktomi let these words sank into his brains while he recalled the oppressing aura that Kuroro had emitted earlier. Oh, how he could so imagine the man mangling him in the most grotesque manner possible that went beyond an average human's wildest imagination. Deciding that he still liked his life and he was not going to squander it any time soon, Iktomi made a silent oath not to lay a finger on this Kurapika girl.

* * *

"Is he referring to Anansi when he said 'Old man'?" Kurapika asked as they walked in the darkness of the temple's unlit corridor. Her Dowsing Chain dangled from her outstretched hand, swaying to one particular direction that indicated Meta's position. The chain gave an otherworldly glow that partially served as the dim lighting inside the temple.

"Most likely. Anansi is the oldest around this area, but if I remember correctly Iktomi will be the second oldest."

Kurapika made a face.

"Just how old are they really?"

"Beats me." Kuroro shrugged.

They continued walking in silence until they reached a certain door. The Dowsing Chain swayed rather violently when they neared that door, and so with highly hopeful face Kurapika reached for the wooden door. She wondered how the woods could remain relatively intact after probably years or even decades of presumed abandonment. The door opened with a soft creak and beyond the door was a room that Kurapika would assume as a bedroom.

There were piles of cushions inside the room; fresh and clean. They were obviously brought there just recently for certain function, and both Kurapika and Kuroro knew what they were for. Among the cushions was a boy who sat comfortably as if he was the emperor of the world. From the scarce illumination that her Dowsing Chain provided, Kurapika could see that he had a very eerily calm smile on his youthful face. The youth had an almost identical face with Iktomi it made her uneasy, and he was dressed in the same way that Iktomi person did, with prominently less body markings and accessories.

"Hello there, but first let's have a little light for comfort."

After those words escaped his lips, something was suddenly shot from behind the boy and collided with the ceilings and walls. Those 'things'; which Kurapika would soon discover as spider webs, suddenly glowed dimly as if they were some fluorescent substances. The room soon was illuminated with gentle white light emitted by those silky threads. Kurapika then withdrew her Nen since it was no longer required—neither for tracking nor for lighting.

"Now," the boy started as he gazed at Kuroro's face, "it's been 20 long years since the day you last visited, Kuroro Lucifer." The boy greeted with soft voice

Kurapika could not help but to have her eyes as wide as saucer. This small boy who looked like he was barely 10 years old had existed since 20 years ago? Not to mention that he clearly remembered Kuroro's face, which meant that he was of quite some age even 20 years back.

_What's wrong with these people?_ Kurapika screamed in frustration in her head. Nothing seemed to make sense in this place with these people. Even without looking down, Kurapika knew that her ring was gleaming scarlet again as the corner of her eyes could see the glow. She could even spot the same glow coming from Kuroro's ring—it was easy to see in the dimness of the room.

"You are…Ksa." Kuroro said with slow voice, as if he was unsure of himself.

Kurapika saw him setting Bia to the floor and the girl stood on her two feet without any protests. She did, however, cling to Kuroro's black robe tightly as if it was her lifeline. Bia stood out in the dark chamber because of her bright snow-white hair, and it seemed that she was aware of it as she soon scooted to hide half of her body behind Kuroro. Kurapika was slightly unnerved because Kuroro's gesture of putting the girl down was like a preparation for a possible incoming fight.

"Of course." The soft-spoken boy nodded. "Meta has been waiting for you two so impatiently."

The boy looked down on his lap and curling there was a fast-asleep Meta. He had a peaceful expression on his face; one that Kurapika knew well. When Meta was thoroughly exhausted after a whole day of activities, he would drop down and slept like the most peaceful log on earth.

"Meta!" Kurapika exclaimed and began to take one step towards the boy. However, that was the only thing she could do before Kuroro suddenly grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back.

"Hold it." He muttered to her in calm voice, though his eyes were fixed to whatever was in front of him.

"What's your damn problem?" Kurapika screeched at him.

"Look closely. Use your Gyo." Kuroro instructed her.

Grudgingly, Kurapika did as she was told. The moment her Gyo was activated, she could see the network of spider web spun into a wall of net in front of her. Had Kuroro not stopped her, she would have crashed into that creepy net wall and goodness knew what would happen.

"What would have happened if I had touched those webs?" Kurapika asked with slightly squeaky voice. She had all but forgotten that she was in an unfamiliar territory because of her excitement of finally seeing her boy again after so long.

Without responding to her, Kuroro flicked one of his wrists and a needle the size of an ice-breaker flew towards Ksa, passing through the gap of the net. Kurapika pulled a strangled-like face while Ksa donned the ever composed expression. He never flinched, not even when the needle stopped just right in front of his face; only a few centimetres shy from his nose. With her Gyo, Kurapika could see that somehow a few strands of fine spider threads had shot from behind the boy and had stopped the needle before it impaled the boy's face.

"This isn't very nice of you, Kuroro Lucifer." Ksa said while the needle dropped to the floor with soft clinking sounds.

"I'm not in the mood. Hand over the boy." Kuroro said; rather grouchily in Kurapika's opinion.

"You make it sound as if I'm his kidnapper." Ksa smiled. "I'm only guarding him while he sleeps."

_Something is wrong,_ Kurapika thought. One run-over of her thoughts and she realised what was wrong.

"What did you do to Meta?"

"Hm? You ask funny questions. I didn't do anything. He's just sleeping off his exhaustions from playing all day. Also, the heat has been quite harsh today, hasn't it?"

Now that Kurapika observed the boy with more concentration, she finally perceived what was so disturbing about the boy; while he had the body—face, size, and even voice—of a little boy, his demeanour, attitude, personality, and mannerism were that of an adult. It was too uncanny. He was like a wise old man trapped in the body of a little child.

"No." Kurapika declared with strong voice. "Meta's five senses are unusually sharp. He would have noticed us when we entered the room."

_Not to mention the commotion I've made by yelling at Kuroro earlier. It should've been more than enough to wake him up,_ Kurapika thought.

"He's saying the truth, Kurapika." Kuroro said. Kurapika almost snapped at him to shut up when she suddenly remembered how Kuroro had sort of 'awakened' his True Vision that he inherited from Ishtar's blood in him. So, she did not protest.

"But I noticed it as well." Kuroro said with softer voice as he directed his statement at Kurapika only. "Why are his senses so sharp, I wonder?"

"Gon and Killua trained him since very early. They were too eager." Kurapika almost rolled her eyes when she remembered how Gon and Killua had insisted on training Meta when the boy had been able to _barely_ walk. She could not understand for the life of hers why those two were so eager with training Meta. Sure she would eventually train him for his survival, but that early?

"I see," was Kuroro's only comment at Kurapika's short explanation. He turned to Ksa and asked while gesturing at the net with a nod of his chin, ""then what's with this ridiculous net?"

"You may call it a safety precaution against two people with overprotective nature." Ksa smiled again. "Oh, and here's the little guy waking up."

True enough, Meta stirred in Ksa's arms and he began to mumble incoherently as he always did when he was waking up. Kurapika heaved a sigh of relief when she saw him moving while Kuroro donned a neutral expression. Meta sat up and blinked sleepily. Groggily he groped in the faint darkness; his eyes had yet to adjust with the sparse illumination of the room, until he found Ksa's face.

"…Ksa?"

"Yes, Meta." Ksa hummed amusedly.

"Mm…Mornin'…" He mumbled as he slumped to the older boy's chest as if to resume his sleep.

"Thank you but it's not morning, Meta. You have some visitors, by the way." Ksa said as he straightened up the boy so that he faced the newcomers.

Still in the glory of his sleepiness, Meta blinked his eyes several times as he impatiently tried to stare through the dimly lit room. His eyes quickly caught sight of two odd glowing red lights at one side of the room, and so he turned his attention that way. Even with the scarce illumination provided by the glowing spider webs on the walls and ceiling, Meta could quickly identify one of them. His face rapidly brightened and his eyes widened exponentially; all sleepiness thrown out of the window. With a squeal of joy, Meta wriggled out of Ksa's arms. The latter quickly released his hold of the former and withdrew all spider webs so that the reckless boy would not get caught in it. Meta then practically threw himself to Kurapika's arms.

"Meta!" She hugged him tightly until the boy gave an 'Oof!' squeak, but she quickly drew back and looked at him with critical eyes. "Are you okay? You are fine? Are you hurt anywhere?" Kurapika quickly showered him with a tirade of questions regarding his welfare. She began conducting an express check-up on the blond boy, which the boy responded with giggles as if he was amused by his own mother's antic.

_Worry-wart as ever,_ Kuroro fleetingly thought. He only looked on as mother and son were finally reunited. He supposed that he should be part of that scene, but for some reasons he felt that he should stand on the side first. He was not sure on how to act in this kind of situation. This was, after all, Kuroro Lucifer's first time of encountering this kind of…well…scenario.

Bia stood with him, still clinging to his robe. She then pressed her frail body against Kuroro's leg as she inched closer to get a better look at Kurapika and Meta. While her face showed no emotions, there was a glint of something in those hazel eyes. Somehow, she felt a longing to be part of that scene.

"You are okay." Kurapika declared in a questioning tone as she held him by an arm's length and looked him from head to toe for the last time.

"Of course I am! I have Grandma, Anansi, and Ksa looking after me!" Meta grinned toothily.

"Grandma?" Kurapika echoed in bewilderment.

"The old lady from Ryuusei-gai." Ksa supplied generously for them as he observed them from his seat.

_Hatsubaba…_Kuroro thought inwardly. Why was that old woman in Tichitt Walata? Come to think of it, he did not see her when he had been to Ryuusei-gai a few days ago.

As if Meta heard Kuroro's thoughts, the blond boy turned his attention to the standing man. His eyes grew wide, but he did not move from his spot. He stared at Kuroro's dark eyes, and Kuroro stared at the boy's dark blue eyes. Under such poor lighting in the dark room, the boy's eyes could appear as dark as his, but he remembered how the boy's deep dark blue eyes had impressed him back then when he first saw him in Yorkshin City. They stared at each other for seemingly interminable time, and the awkward tension was suffocating.

"You really come." Meta finally whispered, as if in awe.

"You think I'm not coming for you." It was more like a question than a statement.

Kurapika was honestly surprised that the boy could even spare a thought about that. That was not something that a four-years-old would think normally.

"What makes you think so?" She asked Meta with incredulous eyes.

"I'm just…scared…"

Kurapika then released her grip on the boy. She had heard the tremble in the boy's voice and she knew what he wanted to do, so she let go. Kuroro seemed to share the same sentiment with Kurapika, because he knelt in front of the boy and waited. Then, Meta walked ever so slowly towards Kuroro. Still Kuroro did nothing and waited.

_What an awkward man,_ Ksa thought from his seat as he continued to observe in silence.

Then, Meta hugged him around the neck and started bawling uncontrollably. It would seem that he had been holding back for so long, and if that was true then it was an impressive feat for a four-years-old. The moment he let go of his suppressed frustration, Meta cried and cried while he tightened his hold around the man who was his father—the man what he had always wanted to get to know in person since so long ago.

Not knowing what to do, Kuroro simply put a hand on the child's back and pressed his cheek against the side of the blond's head.

* * *

In the void space, Anansi rested his elbows on his laps, his fingers intertwined and his forehead rested on top of those fingers as he closed his eyes. With his thread connected to Ksa, he could discern what was going on in that room. He recalled the short conversation that he had engaged with Ishtar when he once again brought a sleeping Meta into the realm projected by his essence.

"_Can you wait for a little while longer?"_

"_I suppose so. I wouldn't want to ruin their reunion."_

"_You think Meta will notice?"_

"_I don't know. Lately I've been having less frequent contact with him than ever, and Ksa has been keeping him occupied. I hope he won't notice, but I suppose he'll inevitably notice sooner or later."_

"_What do you think will happen when he does notice?"_

"_Honestly, I don't want to think of it."_

"_So you will last until they have settled down, won't you?"_

"_I'll fight for it."_

Anansi pressed his eyelids tightly until his eyes burned. He had attached another strand of his self on Hatsubaba; who had returned to Ryuusei-gai to supervise Basille's condition. Her report had not been consoling. Time was really running out fast, and Ishtar perhaps would fall sooner than she had predicted. He clenched his fists until his fingernails dug into the flesh of the back of his hands. It was not the thought of disrupting the small reunion that bothered him, nor was it the thought of Ryuusei-gai on the brink of plunging into massive chaos the moment Basille expired.

It was the thought of waiting helplessly as the last bit a certain life—the last scrap of life salvaged by an ancient ritual that had occurred centuries ago—was fading away along the passing seconds of merciless Time that made him shed a single drop of tear.

* * *

When Meta's bawling had started to die down and it was reduced to quiet sobbing, he drew back and stared at Kuroro's face. His face seemed frozen and passive, but Kurapika knew that inside he was nothing short of feeling awkward. She even entertained the possibility of him panicking in the inside and it made her want to snicker, but she stayed calm. She was feeling too content to bother going out of her way to annoy the man.

"I'm so…scared…" Meta muttered amidst his hiccups and sobs.

"…I have no reason not to come." Kuroro muttered softly as he reached out to put his hand on top of the boy's head.

He stroked the boy's head lightly and again he had the feeling that the boy's hair really resembled his mother's. Vaguely he marvelled at the wonder of human genetics. This gesture by him seemed to calm the boy further as his sobbing and hiccups soon enough disappeared. However, all three of them were surprised when suddenly a pale olive hand joined Kuroro's fair one to pat Meta's head.

Kurapika and Kuroro turned to shoot a stare of surprise at Bia. She stood at Kuroro's side, _smiling_ faintly as she continued stroking Meta's golden hair as if she had fallen into a kind of spell.

"Who's she?" Meta asked as he eyed the girl curiously.

"She's…" Kurapika turned to look at Kuroro, hoping that he could lend her a hand explaining the situation. Unfortunately, Kuroro merely shrugged and offered no help.

Suddenly, Meta's eyes lit up.

"…brother?"

"Huh?" Kurapika blurted out as he turned to the boy.

"…She said 'brother'?" Meta tilted his head, not understanding the patchy thoughts of the older girl who was stroking his hair.

Kurapika shot an alarmed gaze at Kuroro, who was considerably calmer than she was. He even looked slightly annoyed, if that was anything to go by.

"She thinks you are her brother." Kuroro explained rather half-heartedly. He could see where this was going to, and he was not too happy about it.

_So she remembers about having a brother, but doesn't remember that Heen is her real brother? But why does she think Meta as her brother and not Heen when she met him?_ Kurapika wondered. _Ugh, nothing makes sense anymore…_

"Oh…" Meta muttered in response to Kuroro's interpretation.

Both Kuroro and Kurapika waited for the inevitable question.

"Then can she be my sister?"

If they were both short of self-control, they would have sighed or groaned or rubbed either the bridge of their noses or their temples but they did no such thing. Kuroro and Kurapika simply looked at each other, debating about the answer.

"We'll talk about this later."

"Sounds like a good idea." Kurapika agreed whole-heartedly.

She understood Meta's desire for a girl friend, or even sister. In the village where they were living, he had no friends except for Kurapika's friends and Fino's family, thus he had almost no interactions with girls. Of course he would be excited by the thought of having a sister. Personally she did not mind, but she had this _really_ strong feeling that Kuroro Lucifer would be _strongly_ against the idea of adopting Bia.

…Since when did she start thinking in such way as if they were a proper family?

Bia suddenly shuffled forward past Kuroro and gave Meta a bear hug. Their position was in such a way that Kurapika could see Bia's face when she hugged Meta, and she was thoroughly surprised how her face lit up like never before. It was as if she caught a glimpse of ray of hope vis-à-vis the mute girl. It seemed that her surprise was clearly manifested on her face because she caught Kuroro staring at her with questioning eyes. For a moment Kurapika wished that Kuroro had seen that expression on Bia's face, but when she thought about it again perhaps that would not make a big difference because in the first place Kuroro had very little consideration and care about Bia. She wondered why?

Meta giggled, causing both adults to look at him.

"I like her! She'll be my big sister!" Meta exclaimed happily as he hugged Bia back.

Kurapika and Kuroro looked at each other again, and this time Kurapika purposefully sent a message to him via her eyes:

_He is OH SO going to fight for this._

Kuroro caught the message and, had he been more open, he might have growled in frustration but he did not. He maintained his cool and said nothing.

Ksa had been observing all the time and he had a passive-cum-neutral expression. However, suddenly he twitched and looked up. The moment he did this, the air in the room vibrated and both adults were instantly alerted. Meta remained oblivious, but Bia had a surprised expression. She could feel the turbulence in the air because of the nature of her Nen. After years of being exploited in Bensalem for her Nen, it became a habit for her to activate her Nen in passive mode all the time, and later on Kuroro found it to be quite handy as it served as a kind of look-out device.

On the air was a thin glowing black line hovering above the ground. The slit quickly expanded, revealing an expanse of complete darkness beyond the crack in the air. Both veteran fighters sprung to their feet and Kurapika notably put herself in front of the children, but soon enough they realised that it had been an unnecessary gesture. Anansi stepped out of the black space beyond the slit and landed on the stone floor soundlessly. He was in his whole ceremonial glory, but his face held the expression of grim of the highest form. His faceted eyes were fixed on Kuroro alone. Kuroro then turned to fully face the spider incarnation with a very non-genial facial expression.

"Anansi!" Meta chirped happily at the sight of the spider incarnation. He was still interlocked in an embrace with Bia, but Bia had tightened her hold around him as she looked at Anansi with passive face yet slightly fearful eyes. She had identified him as the cause of the disturbance in the atmosphere earlier.

Ksa said nothing; not even a greeting to his senior, as he looked on. He had seen this coming, and Anansi had warned him to take certain measures should the worst happened.

"Hello, Meta. I see you _finally_ get to see your _parents_ again." He emphasised those two words without tearing his eyes from Kuroro.

Both Kuroro and Kurapika noticed this odd gesture, notably because Anansi had not started acting all goofy and ridiculous in front of Kuroro. Normally, no matter the circumstances and the audience, Anansi always managed to pull off his goofy persona but right not he was having none of it.

"And the reason for your appearance _now_?" Kuroro asked with glacial tone. He knew that Anansi could have appeared any time before so there had to be a strong reason why he decided to hide away and appeared at specific time.

"Basille won't last any longer." Anansi said straight to the point. "It's time that you make your decision."

Kuroro narrowed his eyes in displeasure, but before he could utter a single word, Anansi had pulled yet another stunt.

"Come," Anansi said at the precise moment the black opening behind him disappeared only to reappear right behind Kuroro.

All that Kurapika, Meta, and Bia saw from their position was that a black line was formed behind Kuroro and it expanded into an oval black shape, obscuring Kuroro from their view. When the black shape disappeared, however, Kuroro was nowhere to be seen. Kurapika gave a sharp gasp, while Meta and Bia looked around with matching expression of bewilderment on their face and eyes respectively. Kurapika then realised that Anansi had disappeared as well.

"Relax, Kurapika Kuruta. Master Anansi intends no harm." Ksa offered to Kurapika, but he was met with a bark from the young woman.

"Where is he taking him?"

"To his world. To his space. They have private business to deal with that cannot be discussed in our presences, so bear with it. They will be back sooner or later, I don't know when. The law of Time does not apply in Master Anansi's abysmal world." Ksa shook his head and there was no trace of worry or anything else to discourage his assertion of Kuroro's safety in Anansi's hands.

"Abysmal…world…?" Kurapika echoed Ksa's chosen words. The term did not bring a very consoling impression to her.

"A world with no borders, it is supported purely by Master Anansi's power. It's a space, a dimension, which does not exist in this material world and only exists within Master Anansi's existence." Ksa tried to explain. "Anyway, you have no reason to be worried about Kuroro Lucifer's well-being. Master Anansi would rather die than to harm him."

That much Kurapika knew because she had witnessed first-hand on how much a doting parent Anansi was towards Kuroro—ridiculous a notion as it might be—but still…

* * *

"You are being ridiculously calm for someone who has been thrown into an altogether different dimension," stated Anansi as he stood before Kuroro.

Both of them were standing above an endless expanse of finely woven spider webs, but it lacked the elasticity of a real spider web as the net did not budge at the slightest as the two grown-up men stood on top of it. It felt more like standing on top of a net of capillary-sized steel rods.

Instead of replying Anansi's remark, Kuroro settled on sending ember-like glares at the spider incarnation. Of course Anansi was unfazed by it, but he still had the uncertain expression on his grim face.

"Basille is going to die soon, Kuroro."

"And what does that have to do with me?" Kuroro narrowed his eyes, "or rather, your plan of making me the successor for Ishtar's position?"

"It has something to do with everything. Listen, Kuroro," Anansi drew a deep breath, "centuries ago, Ishtar split her life into two."

Kuroro narrowed his eyes further but said nothing. He listened intently.

"Half stays with her physical body, the other half is transferred into Basille. Even as her physical body died, her life still has not expired yet as long as Basille lives. However, sharing life is the same as sharing one soul though they are essentially different individuals still. One will not last long without the other."

"And how long is that 'long'? Basille has been holding up on her own for almost eight years." Kuroro said sceptically.

"One is because she is a basilisk and it already differentiates her from other familiars—or whatever else you may call it. Two, it's their shared sense of duty that spurs Basille to hold up for so long because if Basille is to die without someone to take over the position, Ryuusei-gai will be gone."

Kuroro raised an eyebrow at this. Anansi knew that gesture; Kuroro was demanding for an explanation and he wanted it _now_.

"You know that forest beyond the temple is infested with 'creatures', correct? What do you think has been holding those 'creatures' at bay?"

Kuroro's eyes widened slightly—he had never thought of it before. "Ishtar and Basille."

"Correct," Anansi said while nodding his head. "The temple functions as a fortress; to mark the border between the two worlds, and it is sustained by the two of them. If Basille, the last pillar of the temple; is to crumble, the fortress will be reduced only to a meaningless building. Those 'creatures' will go on rampage and Ryuusei-gai will be wiped away by them."

Anansi looked intently at Kuroro's face but it was too unreadable. His face was passive, the boy had attached his notorious mask of indifference once again. Perhaps, if he was to broadly categorise, the only times when Kuroro released that mask was when he was around certain people: Kurapika, Lucian, and his Spiders. It was too bad that he and Ishtar were not included in that special group of people. Seeing that Kuroro had nothing to say for the moment, Anansi continued.

"Ishtar has approved of you since long time ago, and so does Basille. All that is left is for you to willingly take the 'throne' for yourself."

Suddenly, there was a flash of anger in Kuroro's obsidian eyes.

"Do you take me as an ignorant fool, Anansi? I have noticed how Ishtar never took a single step out of Ryuusei-gai, not even for a single moment. The only time I knew of her out of the temple was when she took me from my house when she first found me. There are certain rules that come with accepting that position, are there not?"

To say that he had anticipated this was only partially true. He knew that he would notice this, but in a flash? He had to give it to the boy for this stunt.

"True. Once you accept that position, you cannot leave the city. It is still fine to leave the temple, but not for long. Your presence is required to maintain the fortress, so to say."

Kuroro had just opened his mouth to say something but Anansi raised a hand to stop him.

"But I'm not an ignorant fool either, Kuroro. I know you won't be content to be confined in such lacklustre city, so that's why I'm taking you here to tell you something." Anansi said with slow voice as if to carefully articulate his point. "There is one way to deal with that rule."

"Which is?" Kuroro asked rather impatiently.

"If you get yourself a familiar to split your 'life', the fortress will hold out without needing you to directly support it from within as long as the familiar stays there."

At this, Kuroro narrowed his eyes as he detected contradiction.

"Ishtar had a familiar." He stated.

"She simply prefers to stay indoor; it's personal preference." Anansi quickly answered. "But to be able to leave the fortress to the familiar, the familiar must be of distinguished quality."

Kuroro's brains quickly processed the huge amount of information that he had just received. He could see where this conversation was going and what kind of proposal that Anansi was going to offer. Kuroro took a double take at Anansi's unusual appearance, and it confirmed his thesis.

"You are going to be my familiar." It was a question.

"I'm willing to be."

"But you are the leader in this region." Kuroro argued.

"I'm passing the role to Iktomi. He is ready to take the responsibility."

"What if I still refuse?" Kuroro challenged him.

At this, Anansi smiled.

"Then I will be forced to make Meta the successor, too young as he may be."

A deep frown of anger was very apparent on Kuroro's face, and Anansi was taken aback to see it. He rarely saw the boy losing his cool, not to mention to that degree. For normal humans, that look on Kuroro Lucifer's face was something that would perhaps be dubbed as 'murderous', but for Anansi who had known Kuroro since he was but a child and how his psychological skills did not work the way other people's did, he could only describe that look at 'humane'.

"Don't you dare." Kuroro threatened with terrifyingly even voice.

"I don't want to, unless push comes to shove."

"You are blackmailing me."

"No. I'm stating the conditions here. It's either this or that. There is no other option unless, of course, you have not the slightest concern about Ryuusei-gai and decide to let it be erased from existence, just as how it is described as a city that 'is not supposed to exist in the world'."

Kuroro fell into contemplative silence as he weighed the situations.

"You know," Anansi interrupted Kuroro's train of thoughts, "if Meta is to take the throne, Ksa will be his familiar. Ksa maybe the youngest of us, but he is the most compatible with Meta, I can see that. If that really happens, the poor boy will have to stay within the compound of the temple for years until he is strong and old enough."

Kuroro had guessed that, he had somehow known that even before Anansi stated it out loud. It was very tempting for him to just forget about that God-forsaken city and had things his way. However, as he thought of that city, he could not help but to feel that the city was already his identity. As much as people labelled him as a monster or with whatever gruesome nicknames they could find in the dictionary of mankind, Kuroro Lucifer still felt a kind of bond with the city where he was born and grew up in.

Observing him, Anansi suspected that Kuroro did not even realise that had he not had a shred of feeling or bond towards the city since the beginning, he would not have keep funding the city the way he still did up until that very moment. What a clueless boy.

"Is there any other conditions?" Kuroro finally asked.

Anansi smiled.

"Just don't let me rot in the city for too long."

Kuroro could not help but to smile at this.

"Very well."

"And Kuroro? There is one thing you have to do the moment I let you out of this place."

* * *

"So why is the village deserted like that?"

By Kurapika's request, all of them had moved out of the dark confinement of the temple and were walking out in the outskirt of the temple. Meta talked nonstop to Bia although the latter never replied verbally. It seemed that holding her hand alone was enough for the strangely empathic little boy to understand what the mute girl was thinking. Leaving those children together, Kurapika decided to interrogate Ksa to sate her curiosity about this creepy village of Tichitt Walata.

"Oh. This always happens during this season of the year." Ksa answered simply as he sat on top of a boulder.

Kurapika suddenly saw a shadow looming above her and when she looked up she saw a person jumping down from the sky. She took one step back to brace herself for any incoming attack but none ever came. The said figure landed just next to Ksa, and the spider incarnation with the impression of an-old-man-trapped-in-child's-body did not budge at the slightest upon the arrival of Iktomi.

"So, how did it go?" He asked with wide grin, his coal black hair bouncing around his face.

"It's fine. So, what's with this 'season of the year'?" Kurapika replied Iktomi's question curtly and immediately turned her attention back to Ksa.

"She ignored me! I'm hurt!" Iktomi put a hand on his chest where his heart was and reeled back in pretence of being hurt.

"For spiders, this is the 'mating season'." Ksa explained, completely ignoring Iktomi—causing the said man to go sulk in one random corner with dark clouds of depression surrounding him.

"M, mating…season…?" Kurapika tried not to pull off a disgusted expression, but she could not help it. Then, suddenly something clicked in her mind. "S, so…You are saying that the population of this village is…?"

"Kuroro Lucifer never told you the name of the tribe?" Ksa asked with a raised eyebrow. "Tichitt Walata is home for the Spider Tribe."

_THAT DAMN BASTARD!_ Kurapika wanted to screech out loud but had to settle with screaming in her heart while the corner of her mouth twitched violently in grand irritation and irk.

"Well, Kuroro Lucifer only visited once so it's no surprise that he doesn't know that now is the 'mating season'." Ksa shrugged.

"So, the villagers are…where?" Kurapika had the feeling that she did not want to hear the answer.

"Why, they are everywhere around the village," Ksa giggled, "in their spider forms."

"They can transfer into spiders?" Kurapika's voice sounded more like a squeak of a squished rat.

"Only during the 'mating season'."

Kurapika wanted to faint, but fortunately by the grace of the God she did not. She hurriedly turned to the children in attempt to tell them to beware of spiders, but she was too late.

"Mom! Look, I found a huge fat spider!"

True enough, to Kurapika's utmost horror both children were holding out two spiders of the biggest sizes ever that the Kuruta had ever seen in her entire life.

"META PUT THAT DOWN! YOU TOO, BIA!"

"Take care not to kill them, they are our villagers." Ksa said with calm voice as he watched the 'entertainment' with highly amused face.

"Are you afraid of spiders, lass?" Iktomi asked Kurapika as he looked how she scolded the two children for playing with spiders without knowing whether they were dangerous or not.

"No. More like I dislike them. Very much." Kurapika said through gritted teeth.

"Strange. Kuroro Lucifer's group is called the Spiders, correct? And you seem fine with us."

"So long as you people don't turn into spiders, I'm okay. As for Kuroro's Ryodan, well, they are actually the reason why I hate spiders in the first place. Though I've had my dealings with them, it appears that my abhorrence of spiders has become something deeply inherent—" Kurapika stopped and turned to them with narrowed eyes. "Wait? What do you mean 'with us'?"

"Don't you realise? We are spider incarnations; as how Kuroro Lucifer dubs us, like Anansi."

To emphasise their point, both spider incarnations sprouted their extra limbs. Had Kurapika been a normal average girl; Nen-user or not, she would have screeched very girlishly for her freaking-out reaction. However, Kurapika was far from being average girl. If anything, as a reward for their little trick, Kurapika showed them her Scarlet Eyes though not because of any positive reasons.

"I'm warning you, you better pull those things back soon otherwi—"

Kurapika never had the chance to finish her death-threat when suddenly the air was again split and the so-called 'door to Anansi's realm' opened up and a certain person went tumbling out of that dark recess and crash-landed onto Kurapika. Dusts and sands rose from the ground, forming a fairly thick cloud that obscured them. Being used to those two elements, however, Iktomi and Ksa remained unfazed; they did not even cough.

"What the—" Kurapika started but soon she went into a coughing frenzy, joined soon by Kuroro as well.

When the cloud of dusts and sands had cleared off, Kurapika could be seen sprawled on her back rather unceremoniously on the ground with Kuroro facing downward on top of her. Kuroro supported his body with one elbow while one hand covered his mouth as he coughed. Kurapika rubbed the sands off her eyes and blinked; when she saw Kuroro's face just a few inches shy from hers, she yelled at him outrageously.

"Kuroro! Don't do that, damn it!" She pushed him off her body. "And where's Anansi?"

"He's in Ryuusei-gai." Kuroro answered without elaborating. "Where's Meta?"

For some reasons, there was urgency in his voice and Kurapika sensed it. As if answering to the cue, Meta's sudden cry could be heard and both adults turned to his direction. He was still holding Bia's hand and the older girl had a shocked impression on her expressionless face; both were sitting on the ground. Alarmed, Kurapika scrambled to her feet in attempt to get up and approach the upset boy but Kuroro had beaten her to it.

"Meta." He called out to him with soft voice as he knelt next to him, but Meta did not respond to him. "Meta," Kuroro tried again, this time he took the boy's cheek in his hand. "Meta, look at me."

Meta complied, but he did not stop crying. Kuroro looked into those deep sapphire eyes and finally asked in a low whisper:

"Is Ishtar gone?"

Hearing this, Meta's crying turned for the worse and he released Bia's hand to launch his arms at his father's neck. He buried his face into the fabric of Kuroro's outfit and began crying his head off. Kuroro put one hand on the boy's blond head while he used the other arm to scoop the boy up. He then stood up and wordlessly walked straight into the temple, taking Meta with him.

Kurapika could only stand and watch in dumb amazement. She had no idea on what had transpired, but she had the good sense to know that it was something bad. Her train of thoughts were disrupted when she felt a soft tug on her sleeve. Looking down, she saw Bia looking up at her with tears-stricken yet expressionless face. Even more bewildered, Kurapika went to her knees and scrutinised the white-haired girl from head to toe. She had no external injuries whatsoever, so why was she crying?

Bia shook her head, as if sensing that Kurapika had thought that she was crying out of some injuries or wounds. It was not because of any external injuries. It was because of the feeling of loss that Meta had unwittingly transmitted to her while holding her hand earlier. She then pulled Kurapika closer and buried her face in her shoulder. For the rest of the day, until Kuroro emerged from the temple with a sleeping Meta in his arm, Bia continued crying until she also fell asleep in Kurapika's arms.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ I never intended this chapter to be so damn freaking long, but oh well… So many ideas pouring from my head. Anyway, I think this will be the last chapter before the epilogue. Or perhaps not. If you guys can give me ideas of what sort of adventures that they should be going for, be it for the four of them or even only the two of them, be my guest then maybe I'll chuck in some extra stories after the epilogue. _

_Of course, you all are welcome to throw me some ideas on how you want the epilogue to be ^o^ So exciting!_

_Some OOCness here, I guess, but I'm not too sure, given the condition they were in. It's not an easy situation to be in, shitty even. _

_**Next: **__They were finally reunited, but it was not a happy ending like in any fairytales—life was never a fairytale for them, anyway. So how would life be after all these?_


	23. Chapter 21: Interrupted

_**Disclaimer: **__Still not mine._

_**Story so far:**__ Finally things had reached an end—or had it really? With the advent of Kuroro Lucifer's crowning as the successor of Ishtar, how would their lives take a turn?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 21**

_**INTERRUPTED**_

_**

* * *

**_

The inside of the temple was unforgivingly cold; almost sinister even. Ignoring the coolness of the place, Kuroro stared into empty space, lost in thought.

Before sending him back to the material world, Anansi had openly requested him to seek Meta and do whatever he deemed fit when _the time_ came. He had not elaborated about it, but Kuroro understood. He had agreed back then, and realised that even if Anansi had not asked him to do it, he would have done the same anyway.

Kuroro stared down at the child sitting on his lap. He recalled a certain conversation that his vampire had told him a few days ago, before he left for Tichitt Walata. It was a topic that Lucian had brought up randomly and seemingly without any ulterior motive. It was as if he was just speaking out his mind, to share a pinch of his thoughts with his human friend.

"_You know that Meta has empathic power, don't you?"_

"_I've noticed." _

"_Poor Meta. He knows so many things because of his inherent empathic ability, but he doesn't necessarily understand all of them—if not most of them—because he is, after all, only a little kid. It must be confusing for him..." _

Kuroro remembered the distant look on Lucian's face at that time, showing that the vampire—despite being an inhuman being—genuinely care about the little Kuruta. At first Kuroro had anticipated the vampire to go on a full-blast lecture and entreaty about compassion, empathy, and other related issues that Kuroro found redundant. However, the vampire said nothing and merely gazed at nothing in particular, deep in his own thoughts. There was no further prompt, no further prodding, no further provocation. Just those words, and that was all.

He had remembered, back then in Yorkshin, how the boy had managed to project his feelings to him, and Machi had testified the same. He vaguely wondered if Meta could project his mind to him, so that he could attend to a business that had been left unfinished.

As if feeling the wish of his father to enter into the realm of the unreal, Meta's empathic ability somehow reached another new level. The atmosphere seemed to waver and pulsate, and the little boy vaguely felt the birthmark on his palm tingling slightly. He buried his face onto his father's firm chest, inhaling his characteristic scent deeply. It was a gesture that her mother sometimes did unconsciously when she was in an intimate situation (which usually occurred by accident) with him.

Kuroro could feel it. As he closed his eyes and focused on reaching out to Meta's consciousness, he could feel cold tendrils enveloping him, swallowing him. He could 'see' the darkness thickening and condensing around him, as if it had become something chokingly tangible. How he managed to know what to do in order to arouse Meta's empathic ability to include him within its range was beyond him, but it could wait. He would study it later when the time and place was appropriate. Perhaps it was simply because they were father and son, both with strong disposition to the supernatural as their ancient Solomonar blood dictated. Perhaps it was because of their shared urge to see a certain person for the last time.

The suffocating air relaxed slightly, and Kuroro interpreted it as his cue to open his eyes. He found himself standing in a field of total darkness—or at least he initially believed so. Looking around, he saw something glittering weakly nearby. At first he could not discern the shape of that thing, because it glittered and sparkled like a dying ember. He could even see fine shimmering dusts coming off from that 'thing', dropping only to be swallowed by the infinite darkness below. Kuroro took several step towards that 'thing', his steps never faltering and his gaze never leaving that ghastly apparition.

Up-close, he finally perceived what that 'thing' was. It had a vague human shape, although its legs were replaced by a single thick tail. Kuroro imagined that had its body remained solid and not ghostly transparent as how it was at present, the scales covering the bare skin would have been very visible. Its head was ducked low, the curly mass of hair covering most of its visage. The palms of its hands were planted on the invisible ground in that dark space. Kuroro knelt on one knee before that creature. He recognised it, despite its altered appearance—or perhaps he should say its original appearance.

"Ishtar…" He whispered, his voice a mere dry breeze in the vast darkness.

The creature; the medusa, stirred. She looked up ever so slowly, it was almost unbearable. There was a blank look in her eyes, and the dense blackness of those eyes had turned translucent milky white. From the way her eyes looked unfocusedly at his face—as if she had just randomly looked at him without meaning to—Kuroro knew that she had lost the ability to see. How a spirit like her; intangible and unreal, could lose its sight was a mystery to him, but he could not care less about it.

Ishtar opened her mouth but no words came out. She lifted one terribly fragile arm; it was disintegrating into those shimmery grains, and reached out to him like how a blind person did. The sight reminded Kuroro of the day when she had died in his arms—it was painfully similar, as if the stage had been replayed in a morbid fashion. Kuroro's face did not betray anything but a blank mask of indifference, and his body language remained eerily composed.

Those ghastly fingers of her touched his cheek; they felt empty and unreal, like the touch of a passing breeze. Ishtar leaned further so that she could cup her hand on his cheek, and he allowed her. Kuroro fixed his gaze at Ishtar's face, his eyes unreadable and his face an impenetrable mask. He tilted his head slightly so that he leaned towards her touch, feeling her caress. In the past, he had never allowed her to caress him when he had been up and awake.

They remained that way for a long moment, while Ishtar's body decomposed into those glimmering grains as time passed. Kuroro saw it as her snake tail had almost thoroughly disintegrated, and the accursed decay was reaching her upper torso soon. He looked back at the medusa's face; the eyes still blank and her speech still absent, but fate had seemed allow her tears. A shiny droplet of tear dripped down from her eye, and Kuroro felt a certain constriction in his throat.

Her waist was starting to disintegrate, and the fear started to gnaw in Kuroro's heart. He lifted up an arm and planted his palm on her cheek, imitating her gesture. Ishtar's essence—or spirit, or whatever else it might be called—convulsed in his touch, wavering like a disturbed illusion. His lips parted slightly, but those words stumbled out of his mouth a second later.

"Mother…"

At the same moment that word was whispered with hoarse voice, half of Ishtar's face was already scattered into glowing dusts that the darkness was quick to swallow. Nevertheless, Kuroro still saw the fleeting smile that graced Ishtar's face before her being was completely erased from existence. Kuroro's hand that was touching her cheek just a mere second ago felt cold and numb, and when the last bit of her that was left; the out-stretched hand that was caressing his cheek, had vanished into nothingness as well, Kuroro felt as if the inside of his chest had turned leaden—especially so when a passing breeze seemed to whisper to his ear:

_I heard you…_

A gush of gale swept across the dark landscape, blowing him back harshly into reality.

Kuroro opened his eyes with a start, and found himself staring at the thick darkness of the inner chamber of the temple in Tichitt Walata. He felt slight squirming from his lap, and saw Meta whimpering and sobbing pitifully. If Kuroro could feel Ishtar's departure that vividly, how would it be for the boy himself?

It had to be a torture.

Allowing himself to follow his instinct, Kuroro curled his body so that he enveloped the blond boy tightly in an embrace; his knees propped up, his back bent backwards, and his arms around the quivering little boy. He buried his face in the golden mop of his boy's hair, allowing a few drops of tears to wet the boy's hair.

* * *

Anansi sat still, his hand busy stroking the snake's head that was rested on his lap almost lovingly. He said nothing, only staring at empty air before him. He simply waited. And waited. And waited.

Until finally the snake gave a very weak and weary hiss.

His eyes quickly refocused and darted down to look at the dying snake. Basille was staring straight at him with her heavy-lidded eyes; they were dull and hazy, as if there was a perpetual curtain of clouds behind those previously brilliant ruby eyes. The snake hissed again, as if that was all it managed to say. Nevertheless, Anansi understood what she was struggling to tell him. With a gentle yet sad smile, Anansi bent down and kissed the giant snake's forehead.

"Yes. I love you, too…"

Whether it was directed to Ishtar or to Basille, or to the two of them, remained unknown for the coming eternity—it mattered little.

Basille closed her eyes peacefully.

Anansi mourned his loss bitterly.

* * *

When Kuroro exited the temple with an exhausted Meta sleeping in his arms, he was not surprised to find Kurapika waiting for him just outside the door of the temple. He had expected the curious expression on her face as well, and was somehow grateful that there was a hint of understanding on her strangely serene face.

"What happened?" She asked softly, though it was obvious that she already had a guess on what had occured.

Apparently, Kurapika had not asked the two spider incarnations that were present there about the situation. She had chosen to keep her questions to herself and asked them to Kuroro himself.

"Ishtar is gone." Kuroro replied with voice equally soft and oddly calm.

Kurapika did not say "I'm sorry for your loss," nor did she say "You'll be alright" or "I'm here with you." Those were unnecessary lines between them. It came without saying that Kurapika knew exactly how it was to lose a loved one, though the feeling of losing the same person twice slightly eluded her. She knew he would be alright—he always did. It was an unspoken promise between the two of them; she would be there for him and with him, and vice versa. Those were redundant words, and they both knew it.

She just remained standing there, basking in the glorious illumination of the setting sun. The orangey gigantic globe could be seen being swallowed by the vast, endless horizon at distance. The landscape gave a distorted look as heat swelled from the ground, but the area around the temple of Tichitt Walata was strangely chilly.

"I gave her a proper good-bye this time," Kuroro said again huskily.

Kurapika tilted her head slightly and smiled gently.

"I know."

She always did.

* * *

Night came quickly following the sunset, and so did the punishing coldness of the desert land. They sought shelter inside the temple, for the building shielded them from the chilling force of nature out there and there were blankets in the site. Ksa's glowing threads hung on the ceiling, providing dim illumination for the room they had chosen for the night.

Two children huddled near each other, both seeking comfort and warmth from each other. Thick blanket was draped over their small bodies, and they slept off their exhaustion soundly. Two adults sat side-by-side with blankets wrapped around their body and their backs against the solid wall of the temple. They sat with shoulders touching each other; never cuddling, but there was a certain intimacy in their gesture and attitude.

"I'm going to Ryuusei-gai tomorrow," Kuroro suddenly said, breaking the comfortable silence.

People said that words were all-important to women, that they needed it for everything else in their worlds. For Kurapika, it was a different issue. She had always been silent since the massacre of her tribe; keeping everything to herself and using her power of deduction to elicit information from others without confronting them. Kuroro employed the same tactic from time to time, though he was more conversational and tricky in executing his rather unusual modus operandi. Both could effortlessly deduce the hints that the other party tried to imply, and this time it was not exception.

"I'm coming with you." She responded to his unspoken question. "And so are they," she added while gesturing at the sleeping children with a nod of her chin.

While he might have not consciously noticed it; him being Kuroro Lucifer after all, there was a breeze of gratefulness in his heart. He might be a notoriously ruthless murderer and thief, but above all he was still a human. Despite his tainted blood; mixed with the blood of a monster, and descending from bloodline that embraced supernatural powers since the ancient days, he was still essentially a human. Despite his slight lack of sound psychological skill, he was still a being capable of emotion albeit not expressively. Hearing Kurapika's simple words, Kuroro Lucifer smiled.

It was not a broad smile, it was not a happy smile. It was just a small smile—a slight upturn of the corner of the lips—and yet it bore so many meanings to her. She then reclined her head against his shoulder.

"In the end you agree to be Ishtar's successor," stated Kurapika softly.

Kuroro hummed in response, agreeing with her statement.

"Tell me what happened in Anansi's realm." Kurapika requested.

"Persuasion, explanation, agreement," Kuroro replied rather flatly.

"And?" Kurapika urged.

Kuroro glanced at her to give her a quizzical look.

"Don't try to fool me. I can feel that something between the two of you. What did he do to you?"

For a moment, Kuroro had forgotten that they both shared each other's Nen so it was just natural for her to detect the change within him. Kuroro then resignedly told her with more elaboration about their conversation and the ritual to split and merge their 'lives' into one. Anansi had merely touched his forehead where his Solomonar birthmark was and he started reciting a few lines of some ancient language that Kuroro had not recognised. He then felt like his essence was being drawn out from him momentarily, and it had collided with Anansi's drawn-out essence. The process had been like an explosion, and Kuroro understood why Anansi had chosen to conduct the ritual within his void space. It could have done considerable collateral damage in the material world.

"Which means Anansi's mental prowess is exceptionally strong." Kurapika commented by the end of Kuroro's recount.

"I suppose. He may not appear to be much of a physical fighter, but his forte lies on an entirely different aspect." Kuroro said without much interest in the topic. He had sensed that aspect of Anansi since he was small, and so he was simply content that his deduction had not been erroneous. "You have to be _mentally_ prepared when you want to fight him."

"You sound as if _you_ have fought him before."

"I saw him fighting when I was small. While Ishtar engages with her opponent in battle, Anansi _toys_ with them." Kuroro said as he recalled the incident from more than two decades ago. It was not a pretty picture.

All in all, Kurapika could conclude that the combination of Kuroro and Anansi was more than enough to replace Ishtar and Basille as the so-called protector of Ryuusei-gai. She found it ironic that Kuroro Lucifer; the infamous leader of the notorious Genei Ryodan, became the protector of a city. It would have been an absurd notion, had it not been for the fact that the city _was_ Ryuusei-gai and Kuroro Lucifer was a resident of the said city; born and raised there.

"Have you seen Meta's hand?" Kurapika suddenly asked with wispy voice.

"His palm?" Kuroro asked, and as a reply he felt Kurapika's head nodding on his shoulder. He then found Kurapika's hand beneath the blanket and brought it out to the open air. He lifted it up so that he could view the scar on her palm with leisure. He traced the lines of that scar—the scar that he gave her a few years back—with his thumbs, feeling the texture and the almost meaningless shape.

"Funny how his mark is like a combination of ours." Kurapika said again, feeling Kuroro's touch on her palm.

Kuroro said nothing but brought Kurapika's hand to his face and planted a feather-light kiss on the back of her hand that also had the scar, almost with reverence. Kurapika shuddered lightly at the gesture, but said or did nothing. Her eyes were locked on the boy sleeping a few paces away from them.

"So he inherits your Solomonar blood as well. He's really his father's son, with his father's creepy attitude as well."

"You are calling him creepy." Kuroro raised an eyebrow. "You aren't one to talk. He inherits his mother's stubbornness dominantly."

"Like you are not stubborn." Kurapika said with slight snort.

"And so he is _our_ son."

Kuroro slid his fingers to intertwine them with Kurapika's smaller ones. He let their hands dropped and disappeared behind the veil of the blanket. Kurapika chuckled lightly.

"True." She murmured softly.

They both fell into comfortable silence. Sleep came to them as they remained in that position for the rest of the night.

* * *

_Old man, how long are you going to drown yourself in your wine?_ A gentle yet annoyed voice came from the direction of the river.

The old centaur gave an ungraceful hiccup and trotted towards the edge of the said river, where a siren was lounging at the bank. She rested her elbows on a boulder, the other half of her body safely immersed in the cold water. Chiron settled down on the boulder nearest to the siren, and began drinking his bottle of wine again. He had straight away gone into his drinking session after he stargazed—he had seen how a star had flashed brilliantly for a fraction of second before it disappeared like a snuffed candle fire. That was the cue that a great spirit had vanished from the world, and Chiron knew who the spirit was.

"Pray be not hard on me—hic—fair Rusalka, for this—hic—is the time of mourning—hic—for the departure of—hic—a dear, dear friend." He took another swig of his wine. "Ah, my—hic—dear Ishtar—hic—" He slurred dreamily yet at the same time sorrowfully.

Under normal circumstances, Rusalka would have snapped at him with a waspish 'you are just looking for an excuse to get yourself drunk silly, you old goat', but this time she said nothing. With her glassy eyes, she observed the centaur as he swayed back and forth on top of the boulder, eye-lids heavy and eyes unfocused, muttering gibberish words with hiccups in between, and a bottle of wine in his hand. He was like the very portrait of an old man who had just lost a dear wife, though she knew that they were far from being husband and wife. Ishtar and Chiron had simply known each other for centuries since the ancient time, and that was ample reason for Chiron to drink his sorrow away until he was utterly wasted.

Rusalka tilted her head upwards and stared at the starry night sky. The stars blinked innocently up there, blissfully ignorant of the mourning that took place at several places across the globe. The night was quiet, the crickets refused to sing their song. The river streamed as per usual, but its melody was rather doleful. Wind breezed past several times, whispering their sad songs.

"How unsightly you are, Chiron." A new voice rang, carrying a tone of mild disgust yet there was a certain flatness in it.

Chiron had not bothered to look at the newcomer, but Rusalka did and she found Phoenix approaching them silently. Her glittery red-gold dress fluttered behind her, leaving a trail of golden glitters in her wake. She looked eerily glowing in the middle of darkness, yet there was a shadow of despondency clinging to her beautiful visage. She gracefully sat on one of the boulders by the river bank, and there was an odd calmness radiating from her. Rusalka eyed her warily. She remembered the last time when Phoenix had heard that of Ishtar's physical death.

_I hope you aren't going to throw another tantrum like the last time,_ Rusalka said wearily.

"No. I know this is going to happen sooner or later, and there's no way around it." Phoenix said with tired voice. "But it isn't a crime to mourn, is it?"

…_No…_

"Good. Now I'm gonna waste myself. Pass me the wine, old goat." That was what she said, but in practice she snatched the bottle from Chiron's hand before he even offered it to her.

"So dolorous!—hic—Death is such—a wretched, wicked little—hic—thing—Woe, woe!—hic—"

"Shut up, old fart. You are ruining the wine." Phoenix muttered and took a swig of the wine. "But woe we shall."

The night dragged on, and the two mystical creatures spent their mourning with a bottle of wine that never seemed to run out.

* * *

They woke up at the early crack of dawn. Now that they had two children with them, it was best to avoid the scorching heat of the desert, so they planned on crossing the desert when the air was still chilly from the night. However, they were surprised when they found Iktomi and Ksa waiting for them at the gate of the temple. Ksa had a cool visage, as usual, while Iktomi was dozing off rather ungracefully with his arms around a golden staff and his head was lolling with a fat droplet of saliva dangling from the corner of his mouth.

"Going off now?" Ksa asked with soft voice as he elbowed the senior spider incarnation next to him; eliciting a beautiful-sounding grunt from him and a few strings of curses in their native language.

"Yes. It's best to cross the desert before it gets too hot." Kuroro answered.

"Wise decision," Iktomi said while rubbing his abused side, "although it's not really necessary. We've already made an arrangement for you. C'mon, follow us."

Kurapika and Kuroro exchanged a glance, but they followed the two spider incarnations nonetheless. It came without saying that those two were harmless and could be relied upon. Besides, who were they to deny a helping hand when the first thing they needed was to get out of the desert as soon as possible before it reached the bake-thoroughly oven level?

They walked around the temple, reaching its 'backyard' and continued down until they reached a marshland that was abundant with vegetation of various sizes, mostly larger than the average. Iktomi and Ksa led them so that they could tread on the dry lands. Both Kurapika and Kuroro had travelled a good portion of the world, but they had never seen a swamp that was as intimidating as this one. Some of the vegetations had grown so enormous that they stood like a canopy and obscured sunlight from penetrating, causing the swamp to turn into a small swamp forest. For some reasons, there were constant light breezes in that swamp forest, whereas normally the air in a swamp forest was stale and so thus poisonous, more often than not. They also realised that the swamp forest had no animal occupants, only plants as far as their eyes could see. So busy they were with surveying the surrounding that they had not noticed the red glow in their identical ring brightening for every step deeper into the swamp.

In silence they walked, and after a few long minutes they reached the heart (or so they both estimated) of the swamp. It was an enormous lake, with the surface clean of any reeds or plantations. The water was rather muddy, and the surface was rippling as breeze stroked it. Iktomi stood near the bank of the lake and squatted there.

"Wake up, you old thing. You've got guests." He said loudly, his voice echoing across the lake.

Nothing happened for about a minute, until finally the water started to tremble and something seemed to be emerging from the centre of the lake. Iktomi squatted there unmoving, while Ksa stood near to Kuroro and Kurapika; and the children in their arms. Soon enough, a gigantic creature emerged from the lake and both humans widened their eyes. Kuroro's expression was slightly more composed, while Kurapika's lips were slightly ajar in awe.

"That is Ninki Nanka, and he'll be the one to take you across the desert—a free ride, in other words." Ksa explained to them without looking at them.

The Ninki Nanka—the creature that Iktomi was talking to (actually complaining to it about it being such a hopeless lazy bum) and at the same time poking with the blunt end of his staff—stirred and heaved up its great head. It was a curious scaly creature that looked almost like an oriental dragon, only that its body was much bulkier and the colour was a dull moss colour, probably because it spent most of its time immersed under the swamp water. The scales glinted beautifully when sunlight fell from among the dense thickets of the shrubs that surrounded the swamp. There were several stripes of red markings, especially around its face, and its pale mane dropped around its thick neck, dripping muddy swamp water. Its gelatine eyes peered at Iktomi lazily, and then to the two humans standing not far away.

_Snacks?_ The reptilian asked Iktomi lazily.

"You sure you want to eat them? Look closely at what they're carrying in their arms."

Ninki Nanka lowered its enormous head to take a better look at the humans, and there were a flash when it saw the sleeping children. Kurapika swore that she heard purr coming out of its jaws.

"Ninki Nanka loves children." Ksa said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"That's a relief," Kurapika said dryly.

"So, are you going to take them or not? You've been sleeping your ass off for these past few years, you need exercise, you fat lizard." Iktomi said, poking the reptilian with his staff again.

_After I play with them,_ answered the dragon.

"You're out of your mind. Too much sleeps, apparently. Play here in your swamp? Forget it." Iktomi slapped his scaly neck. "Play after you deliver them to the border on DRY ground."

_Ok_,it said while raising its body fully from the stagnant water of the lake. It stood on four legs, but its body was longer than anticipated. It then rose to the sky and flew up to the brightening sky until he appeared like a flying worm up there. Iktomi gave a whistle when he saw it flying, his hand hovering above his eyebrow to shield his eyes from the sunlight.

"Ninki Nanka is a simpleton, it's easy to negotiate with him." Ksa said while turning to face the two humans. "But you should really let him play with those children. He's extremely gentle despite his bulky appearance, I promise."

"I don't know…" Kurapika muttered as she stared at the flying 'worm' up there, which was trying to dry off its body before picking up its passengers.

* * *

The route from Tichitt Walata to Ryuusei-gai involved crossing the Erin Continent, and so Ninki Nanka dropped them at the border of Tichitt Walata and Erin Continent. Kurapika was forced to let the children play with the said dragon, though she was most reluctant to give her permission. True that the dragon looked sluggish and far from fierce, but still the sight of the small children loitering, tumbling, scrambling (and other activities, you name it) around the gigantic reptilian unnerved Kurapika to no end.

"You worry too much, Kurapika." Kuroro said easily as he sat next to her.

"Shut up…" She growled at him and continued observing the children. She noticed that Bia was moving about with less awkwardness and stiffness, though her face remained a frozen mask that only rarely melted.

"You don't really like Bia, do you?" She asked him while stealing a glance at him from the corner of her eyes.

"More like I don't really care as much as you do. You tend to take things excessively." Kuroro shrugged.

"She's getting along so well with Meta." Kurapika said while ignoring his last statement.

"Your point?" Kuroro asked, though he could guess where this conversation was going.

"I'm just saying." Kurapika said evasively. "I wonder how things will be from now on."

Kuroro's eyes darted to the children that were playing with Ninki Nanka. Meta was climbing its mane vigorously, while Bia was stroking the tip of its gigantic nose. The dragon itself had an oddly content look.

"I will have to visit Ryuusei-gai from time to time. Just the same as how it's always been, more or less. I don't think there'll be many changes after this."

"You'll still do your business with your Spiders, I'll still do my duty as a Hunter."

"Doesn't your duty involve going on a long trip?"

"It can be arranged."

Suddenly, Kuroro's cell phone rang. Out of reflex, Kuroro had it in his hand in less than a second, but both he and Kurapika had a surprised look. It felt like ages since either of them had a call. Kuroro's cell phone was rather special as Shalnark modified it so that it could receive any calls no matter where the Spider Head was. He modified it before he departed from Muntenia, with the help of Heen and his Nen ability to manipulate electromagnetism.

Kuroro answered the phone with passive face, while Kurapika looked on.

_[Kuroro Lucifer of the Genei Ryodan?]_ said the gruff voice over the phone.

"That is me." Kuroro responded smoothly.

_[Good. I have a business proposal to offer you.]_ The man said with a notably smug tone in his unpleasant voice.

"Regretfully, I can't entertain you right now. You will have to call me another time." Kuroro replied without a moment of hesitation.

Kurapika raised both eyebrows in surprise. She had guessed that it was a call from a client; or a potential client, when he had said "That is me," but she had not expected him to straight away turn down the offer. She had thought that he would at least hear out the proposals or whatever it was that the client was offering him.

_[What? You busy or something? Come on. Someone like you can't be too busy to actually reject a call from a client, can you?]_

It was obvious that the man over the phone was not too pleased about being told to 'call another time' by Kuroro. Kurapika decided; from the manner in which he spoke, that the man was someone with high position in his carrier. A director, perhaps? Not that she cared, though.

"Unfortunately, I really have no time for you right now." Kuroro said again with flat tone, uncaring about whether his attitude would result in him losing a potential contract or not.

_[Oh, really?]_ Now Kurapika was positive that the man felt insulted by Kuroro's reply. _[Tell me then, what is this business you are attending that you can't even afford a bit of time for ME?]_

_Definitely a boss or something along that line_, Kurapika decided when she heard the last line of his query.

Without even throwing a contemplative glance at her; which people usually did when they were deciding something on the spot, Kuroro answered the question deadpan:

"Family matter."

Kurapika almost chocked upon hearing that. Now that was something utterly out of even her wildest imagination. If anything, 'surprise' seemed to be an understatement here. Apparently, she was not the only one who was shocked out of her sense.

_[You—? Family m, matter?]_

"Listen." Kuroro said with a sharp edge in his voice, a tell-tale that he was getting impatient by the long-drawn 'unimportant' phone call. "Now it's either you wait until I'm done with my business here and I will call you back or you can just forget about your proposal and find another to take the job. Although…" He let out a deliberate smirk, "I highly doubt that there will be any others out there who are better than us."

Kurapika mentally snorted at the somewhat arrogant comment that Kuroro made in reference to the Genei Ryodan. She knew very well, however, that the group deserved such respect in terms of their capabilities of getting jobs done—albeit usually in a very grotesque manner.

Kuroro said nothing anymore and waited for the caller's response. Kurapika heard a muffled curses and the call was ended abruptly. Kuroro pocketed his cell phone and thought no more of it. The blonde Kuruta observed the man's visage, as if trying to read an explanation off his expression.

"You don't strike me as the family type." She finally remarked sceptically. At this, Kuroro only shrugged.

"Decidedly, family is a charming concept."

Translated, Kuroro was saying that he found it comforting to have a family of his own. Kurapika blinked, still in her surprise.

"I thought the Spiders are your family?" She tried asking, and truthfully she had been curious about it.

Kuroro let out an amused chuckle.

"I never thought you would actually associate 'family' with me."

"Neither do I." Kurapika admitted as she crossed her arms. "What did you think I'd say about it?"

Kuroro did his thinking gesture—covering his mouth with his hand—and considered it. After a short while, he looked at her and said:

"I'd go with 'the idea of sticking the word 'family' and 'Kuroro Lucifer' together is just absurd in itself'."

Kurapika thought over it, and then let out a smirk.

"Sensible enough."

She then stood up and called out to the children, telling them that it was time to go. Meta gave a cry of protest and pulled a grand sulk, while Bia wrapped her arms around the nose of the dragon. Even the dragon had the nerve to imitate a 'puppy eyes' gesture at her, causing her to glare at it. She crossed her arms and tapped her feet impatiently against the hard ground.

Meta continued sulking and did not move from his spot. Kuroro remained in his seat and observed the two's dynamics. He wondered if this happened a lot, considering that both of them seemed to be as stubborn as mules—or more even. After a while, it was Bia who made the first move. She inched towards Meta and grasped his smaller hand. With the pout still on, Meta looked up to Bia and the older girl began tugging at his arm, as if telling him "Let's go." After a while, Meta relented and let himself being half-dragged by the older girl.

"Bye bye." Meta told Ninki Nanka with soft dejected voice as he glanced over his shoulder.

_So long, human children. It has been a delight,_ the dragon said before it rose up to the sky. As it shot to the sky, strong wind blew around the vicinity; stirring dirt and dusts from the ground. The dragon then did a somersault in the sky before it flew back to his home.

_Show off,_ Kurapika muttered inwardly.

* * *

The journey across the border had been an uneventful one. Kuroro led the group in front, while Kurapika stayed at the tail of the procession as the children walked between the two of them. Meta kept chattering incessantly about the surroundings, asking questions about this and that while either Kuroro or Kurapika would answer those questions. Most of the time Meta would direct his questions to Kuroro, and Kurapika found it rather cute. Kuroro himself made no attempt to evade the torrent of questions, although Kurapika had always known him as a very patient man—except when he was pissed off, rarely as it was.

Kurapika looked around the area. She had been to Erin Continent before, but it had been a very brief visit where Anansi and Ging took them by the Fairy Ring to the mansion that held Kurapika's target; the Scarlet Eyes. She had not had the time to look around at that time, only that she noticed the thick forests scattered almost everywhere. There was not a place where she would not see a forest. Now that she traversed the forest with more attention to spare, she noticed how the trees seemed to emit a peculiarly serene aura. The only sounds in the forest were the noises that Meta was making, the sounds of the ground and dry leaves and twigs being trampled by their feet, and the shuffling of their feet. There were no sounds of birds or crickets or any other forest animals. It felt as if the forest was enchanted.

_Enchanted?_ Suddenly something clicked in her mind.

She looked down on the onyx-silver ring that she was wearing, but the onxy remained as dull black as ever. The forest was normal, but Kurapika could not shake off the feeling that there were more than met the eyes about this forest. Kurapika looked up and stared at Kuroro's back at the head of the group. He seemed unperturbed, but she knew that he had felt it too. His Nen within her told her so.

Kuroro did feel it. Something was out of place about the forest, but his aquamarine-silver ring indicated nothing supernatural lurking around them. He had not visited the continent since the last time they went there for the Scarlet Eyes. Even at that time they had not really travelled the forest as they were doing at the moment because Anansi and Ging had taken them through the Fairy Path.

Something caught Kuroro's attention and he stopped in his track. So sudden his stop was that Meta involuntarily yet inevitably bumped into his leg. He would have landed on his butt on the moss-covered ground had Bia not caught him. Weak she might be, but Meta was small enough for her to hold her ground when she caught him.

"What's wrong?" Kurapika asked from behind, her voice even and trained so that she would not alarm the children.

Kuroro did not answer her question and merely continued looking at the direction that had perked his interest. There, on the base of a certain old tree, was a glowing circle. Kuroro made a gesture at Kurapika to wait there and he went over to approach that intriguing circle. Kurapika translated the meaning of Kuroro's gesture to the children, telling them to stay put.

Upon closer inspection, Kuroro realised that he was indeed looking at a Fairy Ring. The small pebbles were lined into a perfect circle, and they were glowing subtly as if they were coated with sulphurous glow-in-the-dark substance. He reached out a hand to touch one of the pebble, but he stopped when he heard a faint cry coming from behind him. He turned around abruptly, only to see Meta struggling with something in his hands. Kurapika looked equally confused, while Bia seemed to be helping Meta with whatever he was dealing with.

_Barbarians! Hands off me! Wait until I report this outrageous abuse to my Queen Titania!_

The shrill yet faint cry sounded familiar to Kuroro's and Kurapika's ears, but those words were what struck them the most. Those were the exact word that a certain 'creature' had flaunted to them during their first meeting. Kuroro left the Fairy Ring and approached the group.

"A talking bug! Look, I caught a talking bug!" Meta exclaimed as he raised his clenched fist.

Indeed, trapped by Meta's small hands which were supported with Bia's hands was a small glowing girl with a pair of small translucent butterfly wings—a fairy. She struggled with her might, but obviously her might could not be compared with Meta's absolute attempt to keep her captive in his hands.

_You insolent brats! Keep your dirty hands off me! This is sexual harassment!_ The girl continued shrieking while pounding at Meta's hand. Seeing that it did not work, the little fairy bit Meta's hand. Hard.

The result was wonderful as Meta released his hold around her with a yelp of pain, and Bia's hands were swatted away in the process. The fairy hurriedly tried to make her escape, but unfortunately for her Kurapika Kuruta was hovering above the children as she observed them. With one deft movement, Kurapika caught the escaping fairy by her wings with her thumb and index finger, but she was sensible enough not to put too much strength lest she tore those beautiful wings. The fairy gave an ear-splitting shriek when she was captured again, throwing unbecoming profanities around, causing Kurapika to hold her at arm's length away from the children's innocent ears.

_I swear by Queen Titania's name that I'm going to—_

"Hello there, Lilias," said Kuroro once he was standing next to Kurapika. There was an amused glint in his obsidian eyes.

_Lowly humans, don't you dare mention my names with your foul mo—HOW DID YOU KNOW MY NAME?_

"Somebody is rather slow here." Kurapika said with a snicker. "I believe it's been about eight years since the last time we saw you."

Lilias the Fairy stared widely with her lily-coloured eyes at their faces. Her mouth hung loosely around her jaws, and soon she pointed an accusing finger at both of them.

_YOU ARE THOSE BRATS WITH ANANSI AND GING! _She screeched.

"What's that talking bug?" Meta asked curiously as he tugged at Kurapika's sleeve. Bia even looked up with an intrigued expression.

_TALKING BUG! ME, A TALKING BUG?_ Lilias howled in rage.

"Relax, Lilias, or you'll ruin your lungs soon." Kurapika said as she knelt before the children and showed the fairy to them. "She's a fairy."

_DON'T TREAT ME LIKE I'M AN EXHIBITION OBJECT!_

"Do fairies gather around Fairy Rings?" Kuroro asked her, ignoring her cries of indignation.

"You saw a Fairy Ring?"

"Over there."

_You can see it?_ Lilias asked with a gasp.

"Should I not be able to see it?" Kuroro asked with a raised eyebrow.

_Normal humans shouldn't be able to see them!_

"But the last time—"

_That time Anansi was with you, so you could see it. But this time you're all humans, so how come—_

"Ah." It clicked in Kurapika's and Kuroro's minds, and they both looked at each other. They could explain to Lilias about them being not entirely human anymore, but with the presence of the children they could not speak about that matter freely. In conclusion, they would let Lilias wondered about it and kept her in the dark. Not that she was obliged to know, anyway.

"Well, whatever it is, the Fairy Ring is there and you are here. Do you think you can help us use the Fairy Path?" Kuroro asked with amiable tone.

_Why should I?_ Lilias said with puffed cheeks.

Ah, the same old pattern.

"Because you are the only one who can help us, Lilias. If you feel violated by this boy's attitude, forgive him because not only that he's a mere child, but also it's his first time ever seeing a fairy from up close. Of course he'll be fascinated to see you, no?"

By this time, Lilias was already blushing from Kuroro's mild flattery and Kurapika almost snorted in laughter but she reined it. She kept a straight and serious face, because if they managed to win her over then they would not have to cross the entire continent to get to the Ruthenia deserts that surrounded Ryuusei-gai.

_He called me a talking bug…_Lilias tried to counter feebly.

"You're pretty." Meta suddenly blurted out with beaming face, and Kurapika ALMOST burst out laughing.

That was all that she needed to completely change her mind. Lilias immediately agreed to lead them through the Fairy Path, and upon release she hovered around Meta's head, enthralling him with her little stunts. Meta was absolutely delighted, and he even translated Bia's thoughts of her pretty hair and pretty colour.

They entered the Fairy Ring and were teleported into the Fairy Path. Kuroro and Kurapika looked around and noticed that they were at different start as from the last time. The path also winded in different direction, branching out to different turns. Lilias asked them of their destination, and they told her about Ruthenia border.

_That is far away from here!_ Lilias said with her high-pitch voice.

"Exactly why we need to get shortcut from this Fairy Path." Kuroro said.

"Goodness knows how long it'll take to cross the entire continent to get to Ruthenia border." Kurapika rolled her eyes, not wanting to count the number of weeks that might come.

_I see. Come, then! This way!_ Lilias said cheerfully.

The group followed Lilias obligingly; with Meta and Bia looking around in uncontained excitement while Kuroro and Kurapika took their time admiring the Fairy Path. They saw fairies passing by, fluttering their wings of various shapes and colours, winking and giggling at them. There were other creatures as well, and Kurapika even thought she caught a glimpse of a passing unicorn. She was reminded of Una then, and wondered how that dear unicorn was doing.

"Lilias, have you heard anything about Una lately?" She tried asking Lilias; who was busy praising the Fairy Realm to the two fascinated children.

_Una? Oh, that foolish girl. She has just visited old Chiron a few days ago, and she came here for a visit. Said she was looking for someone here._ Lilias said with a frown. _I don't think it's a good idea for her to come here. Certain places are abundant with unicorns and those snotty arrogant self-proclaimed pure horses are far from being hospitable to renegade unicorns like her. Which makes me wonder, how did she turn renegade in the first place?_

"She decided to stay with me." Kurapika answered shortly.

_Ah…_ Lilias pounded a fist to her open palm lightly, but suddenly her eyes widened exponentially. _Wait a minute! So you are—_ She pointed at Kurapika, and then to Kuroro,_ and with you—_ And then she pointed at the two children, _they are your children?_

"Only the boy." Kuroro answered.

_The girl?_

"Adopted." Kurapika answered before Kuroro could utter a single syllable.

Kuroro turned to narrow his eyes at her, but she looked away with a satisfied grin on her smug face. Kuroro had just opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly disaster struck.

* * *

Her breath was laborious, her heart hammering against her chest. She looked around rather desperately. She knew that she had only bought a few minutes of relief, because it was impossible to complete shake them off. They would soon find her track again, and they would be hot on her heels once more. She had to act quickly.

She caught something glowing from the corner of her eyes. She turned around and spotted a Fairy Ring. She was rather reluctant to enter the Fairy Ring, and clearly it was not the best route to take as the Fairy Path was an open area. Then again, she had never heard of _them_ entering a Fairy Path before.

A battle cry roused her from her thoughts, and she looked over her shoulder. An army of women; clad in shining armours complete with their shields and weapons of all kinds brandished, charged towards her.

"Catch her!" One of those she-warriors yelled out.

Panicked, she plunged into the Fairy Ring and could only hope that they would not set afoot into the Fairy Path. No such look. Unfortunately for her, some of those warriors were brazen and reckless enough to risk entering the Fairy Path.

"Get that renegade unicorn!"

* * *

For some reasons, suddenly the Fairy Path shook. Lilias gave a cry of surprise and dove down to cling onto Meta's golden hair. Meta and Bia held each other as they looked around in horror. Kurapika and Kuroro immediately; out of reflex, tensed their body and looked around in alert. They might not look like it, but they actually had their weapons ready for actions.

A nearby Fairy Gate (the gate that led to a Fairy Ring) suddenly shook violently and burst open as if something had brutally forced its way into the Fairy Path. From the Fairy Gate sprung a creature with white body yet black horn. It galloped into the Fairy Path rather frantically, and no sooner later a handful of female warriors charged into the Fairy Path as well. One of these fierce warriors threw a chain at the creature and it entangled itself around the creature's neck. With a neigh of protest, the creature reared back but the chain refused to release it.

Even amidst the confusion, the two humans recognised the creature.

"UNA!" Kurapika called out her name. "Lilias, what's happening?" Kurapika asked the cowering fairy heatedly.

_I—I don't know! The only thing I know is that we're in deep trouble! Get away from here as soon as possible before you catch their attention! You don't mess with those crazy Valkyries!_ Lilias squeaked from among Meta's hair.

"Valkyries?" Kuroro echoed out her words with unnerving composure. "Why are they after Una?"

_Like I said, I don't know!_ Lilias squeaked again. _But I heard the Valkyries have this gross hobby of capturing odd creatures for their entertainment. Apparently, renegade unicorns fall into that category…_

Kurapika was livid by then. Her friend was going to be captured for entertainment purpose? No way in hell that she was going to let that happen. Over her dead body! Without realising it, Kurapika's eyes had turned bright scarlet and she summoned forth her Nen chains. With her Dowsing Chain, she aimed at the chain that was keeping Una captive by the neck. The impact of the collision of her Nen chain—imbued with Enhancement Nen—shattered the valkyrie's chain. That effectively attracted their attention to the group of humans.

_NOOOOO! YOU IDIOT, WHY DID YOU DO THAT FOR?_ Lilias screamed in panic as she saw the Nen chain flying towards the valkyries with terrifying speed.

"Yeah, go get them, Mom!" Meta cheered.

"Una is a friend, and that's just how Kurapika is." Kuroro shrugged, but he took out several of his 'needles' as well. "And since she's already landed the first blow at them, I suppose I'll join the fray."

_You're all mad…_ Lilias wailed._ I'm out of this mess!_

Lilias tried to fly away, but a nimble hand caught her. She protested again, and this time it was Bia who had caught her. She had a frown on her usually expressionless face as she seemed to glare at the fairy.

"She said you shouldn't run away, otherwise we won't have any guide." Meta translated as he held Bia's hand.

_WHAT? For your information, no humans escape the valkyries alive and well! They are insanely strong females!_

"Mom and Dad are super strong, too." Meta grinned toothily.

_As strong as valkyries? I doubt so!_

"You are noisy, she said."

_WHAT—_

Before Lilias could finish her sentence, she felt instantly nauseous as she felt the world around her shifting. When she had reoriented her senses, she found the children on the ground, looking equally confused and disoriented. They were on the ground near Kuroro's legs; who was busy deflecting the valkyries' arrows directed at them with his 'needles', and with his Skill Hunter book open on his hand.

"Pay attention." He told them coolly.

"Y, yes…" Meta replied giddily as he sat up.

Bia also sat up and looked at the raucous fighting that was going on. The unicorn with strange black horn was trashing about, kicking Valkyries with its rear legs and sending them flying far away. It tried to gut some of the warriors but their armours resisted the horn's thrust. Kurapika was in the middle of knocking out some of the Valkyries, with two or three of them lying out cold on the ground. She relied on her Dowsing Chain to knock considerable force to those women's unprotected area but it was no easy feat as they also wore helmet that covered their vulnerable temple and forehead. Well, she did crack some bones here and there on the Valkyrie's upper arm and thighs—which were not clad in armours. Kuroro took no qualms in killing some of them, his 'needles' jutting from either their neck or their eyes.

"Kuroro, the children are watching!" Kurapika hissed at him at one occasion.

Kuroro simply rolled his eyes and said nothing—and nor did he change his modus operandi.

Another savage battle cry could be heard and a group of Valkyries were charging at Kurapika—who was at nearer proximity to them than Kuroro was—with their swords and spears ready to chop the life out of her. Kurapika raised her Nen chains, ready to block all those blades, but before those fierce women had even swung down their weapons, they suddenly crashed into the ground below. They recovered fast from the shock, but they found themselves being glued to the ground—or to be precise, suddenly their armours felt to heavy as if they were made of pure lead.

Kurapika spared a glance to Bia, and true to her guess the white-haired girl had a very unhappy expression on her face. She could feel her Nen reverberating in the air, so she guessed that Bia had modified the electromagnetic field in the Fairy Path (she had no idea that such physic concept was applicable to the Fairy Realm) so that the metals that the Valkyries were wearing were locked on the ground. Kuroro noticed this as well and he looked at Bia with a raised eyebrow. That was the first time he saw her utilising her Nen power effectively and purposefully.

In this moment of distraction, a Valkyrie threw a smoke bomb at Kurapika's feet. A thick veil of smoke rose up and engulfed Kurapika. She coughed violently as the smoke assaulted her, and she was forced to shut close her eyes as the smoke stung her eyes. She had not seen a shadow looming over her, and she had not anticipated to be suddenly pulled violently by her collar. She was practically thrown across the road and she rolled on the ground before coming to a stop.

"Mom!" Came Meta's shrill and scared voice.

Kurapika felt two sets of hands on her shoulders as she continued coughing, but she could not help but to wonder: shouldn't the children with Kuroro? Forcing her eyes open, she saw Kuroro dealing with a few she-warriors in her place. Kuroro had been the one to throw her, effectively saving her neck from being chopped. Kurapika observed how Kuroro tended to evade the attacks and then with one twist or two of his hands or arms he could return the attack to the aggressor, or even used their attacks against each other. She had heard of that fighting style before, but she had never seen her with her own two eyes nor did she know that Kuroro adopted that kind of fighting style in close-combat.

Her eyes caught a blur of movement and suddenly a Valkyrie was standing in front of her with her spear ready to skewer her. Meta gave a gasp of terror as he and Bia clung to Kurapika for their dear lives, but with a flick of her wrist Kurapika deflected the spear with her Nen Chain. When the Valkyrie still had that surprised look on her face, she had not seen a kick coming from her side. She was awarded with a bone-crushing kick from Una; who had magically made her way towards them from among the throng of Valkyries.

_Kurapika! What are you doing here? _Una asked her as she turned around to face the group of Valkyries that were still fighting Kuroro. _You even have Meta with you here, of all places!_

"We're on our way to Ryuusei-gai. What's the deal with these women?"

_They are after me, but now that you've attracted their attention with your display of Nen, Una thinks they're more interested in the two of you right now,_ Una stared at Kuroro with worry-filled eyes, _especially Kuroro._

"Especially him? Why?" Kurapika asked as she stood up.

_Valkyries love men, especially strong men._

_Dear me_, Kurapika could not help but to feel the blood drained from her face. Who could deny that Kuroro Lucifer was a strong person? Hell, Kurapika even begrudgingly admitted that Kuroro Lucifer was insanely strong (and not to mention handsome, but she was not going to admit it out loud ever), so of course the Valkyries would set their eyes on him.

"Una, can you carry the children safely?"

_Una will stake her life to protect them,_ the unicorn declared.

"I appreciate that but you don't have to say that, really," Kurapika murmured as she put Meta on the unicorn's back, and then she put Bia behind Meta. "Meta, you remember your horse-riding lesson, don't you?"

"Yes!" Meta exclaimed and he quickly clamped his little legs around Una's flanks and grabbed a fistful of Una's mane with both hands.

"Good. Bia, hold on to Meta with all your might and never let go. Understand?"

Bia nodded and wrapped her thin arms around Meta's small waist.

"Good girl. I'm going to get Kuroro out of there, be prepared to bolt out of this place." Kurapika said as she turned to charge at the Valkyries.

However, before she could take a step towards Kuroro, the Fairy Path trembled once more.

_O, o, oh nooooes…_ Lilias whimpered from her place on Meta's head. _No good, no good. Hey you, stay close! _

"What—"

_Kurapika, the Fairy Path is unbalanced. It's going to explode!_ Una suddenly cried out in horror.

Kurapika widened her eyes.

"IT'S GOING TO WHAT?"

As if answering to Kurapika's disbelieving query, there was a blinding light on the path between their group and Kuroro. Kuroro looked over his shoulder with surprise apparent on his pale face—he was still unscathed despite fighting more than three Valkyries at one time. The blinding light grew brighter, brighter, and brigher until it was like a ball of energy. Una bit Kurapika's collar just in a nick of time before the ball of energy exploded.

The world turned whitewashed, and all sounds were drowned by the silent explosion.

When she opened her eyes, her body felt very sore as if she had fallen from third storey of a building. She rolled on her back with loud groan, and blinked her eyes. She saw the distant canopy of trees up there, and the sunlight that penetrated the branches and leaves of those gigantic trees weakly. She scrambled to her feet and looked around. She spotted the children on the soft ground that was blessedly covered with thick moss. She crawled to them and was relieved to find them breathing. They just passed out from the shock. She spotted Lilias out cold as well, but her hands were still clinging to Meta's golden strands of hair. Not far from them, she saw Una lying on the ground, unconscious like the children.

There was only one person missing.

Kurapika recalled the moment before the blast, and remembered the fleeting eye-contact between her and Kuroro. She closed her eyes and tried to feel his presence with his Nen within her. His Nen stirred faintly, telling her that he was still alive.

The question was: where was he?

* * *

The cold unwelcoming feel of the hard ground beneath him woke him up. With repressed grunt, he rolled to his side and sat up. Before he could organise his thoughts, a male voice greeted him—it sounded amused and intrigued, with rather carefree tone.

_Hello, young lad. I see you're finally awake. _

Kuroro turned around to the owner of the voice. He found himself staring to a black horse with black mane and black horn protruding proudly from its forehead, and with a pair of intense red eyes staring at him.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__by the request of some of reviewers, I decided to extend the story a bit in order to fill in some gaps. I have to admit that I've kinda lost track of my own stories and forgot which bits that I haven't explained. If you can just tell me what I haven't explained in the story through your reviews, I'll be very happy._

_I notice that some people doubt Anansi's capability or strength as a mythical creature, but really he's not as feeble as you may tend to believe. Like Kuroro said, Anansi prefers to toy with his opponents. After all, I modelled him after Anansi the Trickster Spider God from the Ashanti folklore from West Africa. But I made him into a very expressive character than can really express his love, like the part with Basille when she died. I particularly like that scene._

_Feels good to return to a place that they've visited before briefly in 1001 Nights =P _

_More romance between Kuroro and Kurapika (?) At least for me it's romance enough, but maybe some of you aren't satisfied with it. Sorry =X_

_**Next: **__Kuroro had been separated from Kurapika and the children, but it seemed that he had found himself a company. Who was it? Where was he? What was with those Valkyries? _


	24. Chapter 22: Valhalla

_**Disclaimer: **__Never mine, except for original characters (Lucian, Una, Bara, Ishtar, etc. etc. etc.) I LOVE my OCs so get my permission if u want to use them! XD_

_**Story so far:**__ Kuroro and Kurapika were separated from each other. Kuroro was alone with a stranger for his companion, whereas Meta, Bia, Una, and Lilias were swept along with Kurapika. How would they deal with sudden predicament? Who was that strange horse that had talked to Kuroro?_

* * *

**Chapter 22**

_**VALHALLA**_

* * *

"Where…?" He started, his voice hoarse and dry.

The strange horse—which Kuroro assumed was a unicorn based on the very self-explanatory horn on its forehead—looked at Kuroro with a very amused and intrigued look on its ruby eyes. There was a glint of something as he scrutinised Kuroro from head to toe. Nonetheless, he generously answered Kuroro's question:

_This is a prison in Valhalla; the home of the Valkyries. You've been unfortunate enough to be captured by the Valkyries, but I assume that they've gotten their hands on you by pure luck. After all, you were unscathed when they dragged you in. Those women are disgustingly savage when it comes to battle, you see._

Kuroro looked around, and found that he was being confined in a bare room with solid stones for ceiling, floor, and walls. There was no furniture in the room, and there was only a single door on one of the wall. Kuroro got up and examined the door; it was made of a kind of metal that he could not really discern. The odd thing about the door was that it had no handle or keyhole. It was just a slab of metal pressed among the stones.

_The door is sealed with Valkyrie Runes. You won't be able to force your way out with brute force_, the unicorn informed him generously.

"Why did they leave me alive?" Kuroro asked him, already abandoning the door.

As he sat down in front of the unicorn—with a safe distance away from him in case he meant harm in some ways—Kuroro checked on his persons. He was still intact, and his was not stripped of his rings; both the aquamarine-silver and the Solomon Ring, although his weapons had all been confiscated. He vaguely wondered if Nen could break through the door, but he remembered that Nen was completely incompatible with mystical powers, and if this so-called Valkyrie Rune was among mystical powers, then his Nen would be useless against it. He would still give it a shot later, but now he needed information first.

_Leave you alive? How did you run into those Valkyries in the first place, anyway?_ The black unicorn asked with curiosity very apparent in his whole being.

"Suffice to say that my party was simply trying to help a friend in distress." Kuroro said smoothly without elaboration. "But there was an explosion in the Fairy Path while we fought, and here I am."

_Ah… How very interesting. A human like you in the Fairy Path? Not only that, there was an explosion in the Fairy Path, you said? You fought in the Fairy Path? Those Valkyries must have forced their way into the Fairy Path. How utterly ungraceful. _The black horse snorted in disdain, before staring into Kuroro's obsidian eyes. _Well, lad, I can only guess that they are interested in you. It's not uncommon for those Valkyries to be interested with humans, particularly men. If they get you here, it can only means that you are very strong for a human._

"I don't see any other humans here." Kuroro pointed out rather blandly.

_Those humans are now having party with those Valkyries,_ said the unicorn with obvious distaste in his voice.

"Party?" Kuroro echoed his words with confusion in his tone.

The unicorn looked over him again with more curiosity with his red eyes—there was something diabolical about those eyes, as if they were the colour of flames from Hell.

_You aren't from around here, are you? Well, the Valkyries love strong, strapping men and parties abound with mead—or in universal term, alcohol. Combine the three of them—strong women, strong men, and strong alcohol—and you'll get the raunchiest orgies ever._

The black unicorn stopped to observe Kuroro's expression, but he only saw cool composure on that face that was the model of indifference. Nevertheless, he did not miss the slight frown on the human's youthful face.

_You must be wondering why those men were willing to party with their captors. _

Kuroro nodded.

_Well…_

* * *

_What are you doing, you insane fool? That is the direction of the Valhalla, the home of the valkyries! Do you have a death wish or what? We've just escaped from them with our necks barely intact!_ Lilias screeched while pulling Kurapika's hair, trying in vain to stop her.

"Shut up, Lilias. Kuroro is there." Kurapika said firmly as she observed the swaying of her Dowsing Chain. "Besides, if you don't want to go there, you can just leave us."

_Oh, for the love of Queen Titania! I wish I can, but you damnable daughter here keeps forcing me to stay with you lot!_

Kurapika raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Bia; who was sitting behind Meta on Una's back and staring back at her with the same blank look, but a kind of mischievous shone in her greenish hazel eyes. Thought she was usually the serious type, Kurapika found that she liked that glint in the white-haired girl.

"Well, too bad for you." Kurapika shrugged and continued walking in the direction of the so-called Valhalla.

_You lot will be the death of me, I swear!_

_Lilias, you are too loud. From the way you shriek, the Valkyries may be able to hear you from their bedrooms,_ Una said softly.

"What's Valkyries?" Meta suddenly piped in. Lilias twirled around and began explaining theatrically at the blond boy.

_They are fierce female warriors who take delight being in war and slaughtering other warriors! They will take the strongest men and invite them—_

"More like kidnap." Kurapika intercepted with a scoff.

—_to their infamous Valhalla, the land of the Valkyries! _Lilias ignored Kurapika's scathing remark, _There they will party all night and day, in preparation for the coming battles where they will bask in the glory of their enemies' blood and—_

"Okay you can stop there, Lilias." Kurapika said sharply.

"So they are partying now?" Meta asked, his eyes lit up with the prospect of joining a party.

"I don't think they'll welcome us, Meta." Kurapika said dryly.

_Kurapika, we must hurry,_ Una suddenly said while nudging her elbow. _Una doesn't think that Kuroro knows much about Valkyries, and Una is afraid that they will feed him the Valkyrie Mead and __Sæhrímnir Meat. _

"The what?" Kurapika blinked, but Una seemed to ignore this confusion and instead continued glumly:

_Once Kuroro consumes those substances, we can only hope little to bring Kuroro back with us…_

It was impossible to miss the grimness in Una's words, and the weight of her words made Kurapika stop and turned to face the black-horned unicorn.

"But why? What's wrong with those…" Kurapika could not even recall the complex names, but who cared? "…substances?"

_They are the only food and drink that the Valkyries consume. However, for humans…_

* * *

_If you don't want to forever stay in this place, I suggest you never take a drop or a bite of those stuffs. They may smell heavenly, but they are poison to your mind, intoxicating you, making you forget of anything else but the bliss of partying here surrounded with pretty girls,_ the black unicorn finished with a snort.

On a tray placed on the floor of the stone-walled chamber was a cup containing thick, pale-honey liquid with alcoholic aroma, and a plateful of drool-inviting meat.

Kuroro deliberately took mental note that he was not going to take risks—curious as he was—and so he would not touch that tray at all, even if he was to starve to death. As Kuroro studied the tray and its content, the unicorn studied Kuroro with its red eyes. He was most intrigued by that peculiar symbol on the youth's forehead. It seemed familiar to him.

_What are you, lad?_ The black unicorn asked amiably at length.

"I'm a human, obviously."

_Oh, come on._ The horse rolled his eyes._ Let's be frank here. You are more than a human. I smell demons from you, lots of them. What are you?_

Kuroro narrowed his eyes when he heard the strange black unicorn mentioning demons to him. Apparently he could sense the demons of the Solomon Ring that he possessed, and Kuroro knew that it was not a promising notion.

"And what are you yourself? I don't think unicorns can just smell demons as easily. Not to mention that you are all black. Just how much tainted are you?" Kuroro countered.

Kuroro remembered Una's explanation of the relation between unicorns and black colours. A unicorn never had black as their natural colours; some might have rather creamy colour, others ivory white, some snowy, milky, but never black or any other colours. Black was a taboo colour for unicorns, even. If unicorns could pull off expressions like humans did, the black unicorn would have raised a quizzical eyebrow, and he would have laughed out loud. Instead, he snorted loudly and his tail swished excitedly.

_Seems like you've encountered and in quite a good term with a unicorn. Who is it? Another renegade unicorn? Unicorns are not friendly with men, you should know. Not to mention a non-virgin like you._

"I know, but this unicorn travelled with me and my companion a few years back when she was just a foal." Kuroro said, unsure if he should disclose Una's name. It was not necessarily true that renegades tended to tolerate each others.

_A female renegade, then!_ The unicorn's red eyes flashed. _What's the name, lad? There are only a handful of us renegade unicorns, you can count the number with your one hand. Who?_

"Assure me first that renegade unicorns do not attack other fellow renegades."

_Why should I? _The unicorn snorted, _I'm merely curious. Us renegades mind our own businesses. _

Kuroro did not know whether to trust the black unicorn's words or not. If anything, he felt a kind of demonic aura from the horned horse.

"Her name is Una." He finally answered.

The black unicorn was still for a few long seconds, as if trying to process the information, before bursting into laughter—or rather, a succession of exited neighs.

_What news! Una, daughter of the traitorous Bara, eh?_ The black unicorn flicked his tail as he eyed Kuroro closely. He leaned forward eagerly as he asked: _Where is she now?_

"Why should I tell you?"

_Will you deny a father his long-lost daughter's location?_

Kuroro widened his eyes at this sudden and blatant revelation. It toppled off his composure for a split second, but he quickly regained his cool.

"You are Bara." He tried to confirm with narrowed eyes.

Before the black unicorn could respond, he heard the humming sound of the Valkyrie Runes being manipulated and he quickly turned his head to the door. Kuroro did the same, and he found the door swinging open and three armour-less Valkyries sauntered into the chamber.

* * *

"Okay. So, the Valhalla is just beyond that line of trees. How many Valkyries are there in total?" Kurapika asked the two mythical beings with arms crossed.

_You are suicidal. You really are suicidal. No, you are suicidal AND homicidal…_Lilias practically wept, and she was sitting on top of Meta's head as if that spot was her personal seat.

_Una is not sure, but there are more than a hundred or two of them, including those whom you and Kuroro killed the other day. However, you haven't counted the number of male warriors they have in Valhalla…_

"And how many warriors are there?" Kurapika asked again while wrinkling her nose in disgust.

Lilias had taken the liberty of explaining the raunchy lifestyle of the Valkyries, and it repulsed Kurapika to no end. She had to instruct Una to take the children out of earshot when Lilias started hinting about those Valkyries' sexual exploits with those 'strapping warriors'. How the fairy managed to know so much about those revolting orgies, Kurapika had not had the slightest idea but she did not want to know anyway. It seemed that Lilias was not as innocent as her appearance hinted—looks could be deceiving, alright.

_Oh, need you ask? The number keeps increasing every day and week and month, and you still have to ask HOW MANY of them are holed up there?_ Lilias yelled out in upset.

_Safe to say that it can be up to several hundreds strong,_ Una said softly.

Kurapika groaned. Fighting a hoard of Valkyries was not so bad a prospect because judging from the previous fight she could see that the Valkyries were not as tough as the rumour said—well, rumours tended to exaggerate, anyway. Kuroro and her had been up against about a dozen of them and they were still unscathed by large. However, more than a hundred of Valkyries plus several hundreds of warriors? While she had no idea about the quality of those men although they were regarded as 'strong' by the Valkyries, she knew that it would still be tiresome to deal with all of them at once.

She was a Nen-user and a double-star Hunter. Kuroro was leader of the Genei Ryodan; a group of S-rank criminals, and an S-rank criminal himself. In short, the prospect of the upcoming battle between them and the Valkyries plus the warriors:

Gruelling? Maybe.

Life-threatening? Not really.

Except if Kuroro had consumed those…substances (she still had not grasped the pronunciation of those food and drink—not that she bothered at the moment, anyway), then it would be a whole different thing since she would be up against him. She was not likely to survive _that_.

The lively chattering from nearby drew her attention. Yeah, there was one more problem to attend to in this abject situation: the children. They were not trained for this kind of fight, not yet. If they got dragged into the fight, they would just be in the way. Una could perhaps help her, but Lilias seemed rather…useless. She might be able to look after the children, but after seeing how Bia and Meta were practically turning the petite fairy into their newest form of entertainment without any difficulty, Kurapika began to doubt Lilias' competence at all.

* * *

The three scantily-clad Valkyries stopped a few paces away from Kuroro and they seemed to be studying his features. They looked at him up and down; from head to toe. Kuroro simply smiled charmingly at them and remained silent. He was sitting cross-legged in front of Bara; that black unicorn, and he had his elbows on his laps and his hands clasped together. Bara's expression, however, was the epitome of boredom. He even yawned rudely—perhaps on purpose. This gesture successfully ticked off one of the Valkyries, but the rest ignored the black unicorn.

One of them stepped forward and boldly approached Kuroro. She bent down in front of Kuroro so low that her cleavage was on full display for him. She put on what might be said her most sensual or seductive smile and extended her slender index finger to Kuroro's chin. Kuroro allowed her to tilt his face up so that he stared right into her honey-coloured eyes—he had been looking at them in their eyes since the beginning, though. Kuroro Lucifer always looked at people right in their eyes, no matter the occasion or circumstances.

She said something to him in her language and Bara generously translated for him:

"_Care to join our party, handsome?" She said. Perhaps I should tell you that she has obviously strived to add more dips and slurs in her voice in attempt to sound more seducing but in my personal opinion it was an epic failure. And what a boring, over-used way of inviting people! Can't they be more creative than that? They've been saying the same thing to countless men they've captured._

"Perhaps their creativity is dulled by their over-consumption of alcohol." Kuroro said with a low chuckle.

The Valkyrie in front of him blinked, not understanding his words. The other Valkyries behind her something in a tone that Kuroro could deduce as an urging gesture.

_Oh, that one mentioned about your food being untouched,_ Bara said, but Kuroro noticed that he left out the translation of the other Valkyrie's words.

Before he could ask Bara for the deliberately opted-out translation, the Valkyrie holding Kuroro's chin began to lean forward. The moment she started closing her eyes and pursing her full lips, he knew what she was going to do.

And Kuroro conjured up his Skills Hunter book.

Which was a rather rude gesture; not to mention humiliating—for the Valkyrie, that is. The Valkyrie's lips were nicely planted on the leather cover of the red book.

"I'm sorry, but I am not interested in women like you." Kuroro said softly still with that easy smile on his face, thought it was obscured by his Nen book that was protecting his lips.

Amused by Kuroro's words, Bara translated them for the Valkyries. The women gasped sharply and drew back dramatically, looking obviously aggrieved by Kuroro's words. They then started arguing furiously among themselves in their own language; some looked excited, some looked disappointed, others looked downright delighted. After several minutes, those Valkyries stormed out of the room without a word to either of the prisoners. Silence descended among the two.

"Did you translate my words properly to them?" Kuroro asked, with very slight accusing tone underlying his smooth voice.

_Of course I did; words by words. By the way, they think you are a gay, _Bara supplied for him, translating the Valkyries' arguments from earlier.

"Is that so? How very amusing." Kuroro chuckled.

…_You are not, aren't you?_

"Of course not." The raven-haired human scoffed.

_Thought so. There's a lingering smell of a woman on you, after all._

"I wonder why they misinterpreted my words in such way? I did say 'women like you', and not women in general." Kuroro covered his mouth in an easy gait.

_Those Valkyries are too vain for their own goodness. They think they are the paragon of women that men desire. If a man is not interested in them, they'll outright deem that man as a gay—just like they did to you._

"I see…"

_By the way, it's wise of you not to accept their kiss. Just so you know, their lips were coated with that Valkyrie Mead. One kiss, and you can say goodbye to the outside world and your woman._

"And you purposely let out the bit that they were telling her to kiss me."

_Was looking for entertainment here,_ Bara admitted honestly. _Besides, I feel that you are perceptive enough to see that coming. She was being pretty deliberate with her attempt—trying to be dramatic, I'd say—which was stupid._

Kuroro shrugged.

"I merely find women like them unattractive. Sure they have beautiful faces and bodies, but they are shallow." Kuroro smirked at Bara. "Not to mention that they reek of alcohol."

_Pfft. I smell more blood from them than alcohol._

"Precisely I don't mind blood."

_I knew it. You're a psychopath._

"Am I? What about you then? Let's see…You have been staying here for quite a while, I've observed, and you are powerful enough to keep those Valkyries at bay. I take it that they are not the type who generously feed their uncooperative prisoners, which means you haven't had anything for the duration of your stay here. How long has it been, I wonder? In conclusion, I reckon that you are capable enough of breaking out of this place, but for some reasons you simply choose to stay here. Now what does _that_ make you? A masochistic unicorn?" Kuroro said in a very analytic fashion.

Bara gave a very loud neigh; which perhaps was equivalent to 'laughing out loud' in human term. His head reared back in his excitement, and when he was calm enough, he looked at Kuroro in the eyes with a certain fire in those blood-red eyes.

_I like you, lad! You are an amusing human!_

"Really? I've never considered myself as amusing. But I do know someone who is more amusing." Kuroro said almost absent-mindedly as the image of a certain blonde-haired person appeared in his mind.

_Hm? How intriguing,_ Bara remarked casually as if he was only half-interested.

"Well, in any case I'm getting out of here, one way or another. I need to find my…companions." Kuroro said as he got up to his feet and dusted his pants. "Oh, and to answer your question before those Valkyries interrupted us, Una is in fact with my group right now, I believe. She was the one being attacked by a dozen of Valkyries."

_The nerve of those women!_ Bara suddenly exclaimed as he sprung to his hoofs. _I'm gonna show them hell, alright. Stand back, lad!_

As he said so, the black renegade unicorn was moving towards one of the wall and pointed his black lethal-looking horn towards the said wall. Kuroro obligingly took several steps back but could not resist an obvious question:

"What are you going to do?"

_Since you are my daughter's friend, I shall lend you an aid. I will get us out of this wretched place._

"And how, exactly?"

Inwardly, Kuroro was wondering why the black, seemingly-diabolic, unicorn was so steaming mad when he heard of his daughter being chased by Valkyries. From what he heard, Una was abandoned by his folks when she was just a small foal. He was even more inclined to think that Una did not even remember her parents at all. Why with the sudden concern? Besides, Una had mentioned that her father was a traitorous unicorn…

_Do you not wonder what my sin is that I've become a thoroughly black unicorn? _

"Well, I do wonder about that," answered Kuroro honestly.

_I'm telling you now, my lad. Like you, I have demons within me,_ Bara said with his neck twisted so that he faced Kuroro. He gave him a devilish grin as if to emphasise his point.

"A demonic unicorn." Kuroro concluded, and one could see the impressed look in his eyes. "I suppose your fellow unicorns were mortally terrified."

_You bet. They are all sissy, but it doesn't matter. It's fun this way, there's no rule to bind me. I'm as free as I want to be. _

"But you let yourself captured by those Valkyries."

_I was dead bored._

"So you are looking for entertainment here. I figure as much."

_Tell you what? I think we'll be getting along beautifully,_ the horse gave a laugh before turning to face the wall again. _By the way, lad, we're going to face a horde of warriors and Valkyries once I blast this sorry excuse of a wall here. You ready?_

"Anytime." Kuroro shrugged with a smile of anticipation gracing his face.

_Now, have a good look at my demon's power._

With that, the black horn glowed menacingly in the dim chamber. Bara took one step forward and when his horn touched the stone wall, it crumbled into sands and dusts. Nothing was left of the stone wall. Nothing at all.

"That is a very interesting ability you have." Kuroro commented as he examined what little remained of the wall.

_In the past, I encountered this demon who called himself Apaosa. Wherever he set his foot, that land would be plagued with drought as he was the personification of aridity._

"And that demon lives within you right now."

_Well, let's just say that things were complicated at that time and there's no other choice._ If a horse could shrug, Bara did it.

Kuroro opened his mouth to say something, but a clutter of something metal dropping on the stone floor distracted him. He turned and saw a Valkyrie standing right in front of the gaping hole of the stone wall. On her feet was a silver tray with the food spilled on the dusty stone floor. She was clearly on a shock, but she recovered fast and her hand went fast for her sword strapped on her waist in a trained manner.

Unlucky for her, Kuroro Lucifer was still faster than her.

In a blink, the Spider Head was already behind the Valkryie and had his hands on both sides of the woman's head. With an easy twist of his arms, a sickening sound of crunching bones could be heard and the poor woman crumpled to the floor with her head twisted in a very strange angle. It was the same sight as when he had been escaping his prison in the bowel of Bensalem.

_Poor thing. _Bara said but there was no sympathy whatsoever in his voice. He stepped out of the prison and nudged at the corpse lightly with his hoof. _From the way you move, you're a trained killer, I suppose?_

"You can say so." Kuroro shrugged and inspected the dead Valkyrie for anything that he might use as a weapon.

There was a shrill cry from an end of the corridor. Kuroro and Bara turned to the source of the noise and found a Valkyrie unsheathing her sword. No sooner than a step by that Valkyrie, a whole group of Valkyries had begun flooding the corridor. Bara's blood-red eyes lit up and his scratched the stone floor with his hoof excitedly.

_Party's on, baby._

* * *

They were hardly within half a kilometre radius to the border of the Valhalla when the sentries had charged at them like demon-possessed. To make matters worse, those sentries were all Valkyries in their worst mood because they had to stand guard while the party went on. It might not be the best description, but Kurapika could not help but to think of one sentence in her mind:

_Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned._

Well, not appropriate because those Valkyries were not exactly scorned—more like they were receiving the shittiest end of their job description at the moment.

Nevertheless, the Valkyries were more than happy to deal with them; Kurapika suspected that those savage female warriors perceived intruders like them as a kind of entertainment. In a flash, they had their bows ready and trained at them and in the next second the sky was clouded with a shower of deadly arrows. As Kurapika braced herself to deflect all those arrows with her Dowsing Chain as best as she could, something happened.

When the arrows were closing in to them, sparks of blue flames suddenly appeared in the air, and then all those arrows combusted into blue fireworks. It went without saying that the Valkyries were shocked out of their shells, but Kurapika frowned with a hint of irritation.

_The blue flame again,_ she thought. She recalled the incidents in the past years when suddenly blue flames would appear out of nowhere to especially help her when she was in a pinch. Not that she was ungrateful for the generous help, but it made her uneasy to think that there was a kind of force in her vicinity that she could not detect. Beyond the annoyance of being protected, it was the fact that someone was around her without her sensing them that put her on the edge.

"You who're shooting those blue flames. Show yourself! I know you're there!" Kurapika shouted out to nobody in particular.

She looked around the vicinity with sharp eyes, trying to see if there were some apparitions or some hints that someone had heard her words. Bia tilted her head in confusion at Kurapika's actions, while Una started looking around anxiously.

"I think it's there, Mom." Meta called out while pointing at the empty space above Kurapika.

A form of fear seized Kurapika's heart. Why could Meta see it while she could not?

"I can feel it. It's laughing now." Meta informed her while his eyes were fixed to that spot above Kurapika.

While the momentary panic had fled from Kurapika's heart, she was still uneasy about it. So it had to be Meta's empathic ability that allowed him to feel invisible presences around him. Kurapika was not sure whether this was a good thing or not, for Meta to be so sensitive.

Knowing that his cover had been blown by the boy's announcement of its presence, the entity that had been hiding finally tore off its cloak of invisibility and revealed itself in its full glory at the Kuruta woman. When Kurapika turned to look up at the being hovering above her, she was the least happy to see it. Oh, she knew who it was.

"YOU!" She roared while jabbing an accusing finger at the being floating slightly above her. "You are that Ifrit from before!"

_Deifri at your service, Ma'am._ The Ifrit bowed his upper body in mock salute at Kurapika, and finally descended so that he was floating slightly above the ground to allow Kurapika to look at him without straining her neck. That was nicely thoughtful of him, but Kurapika had not had the good sense to see it at the moment.

"Mom, what's that? What's that?" Meta asked in excitement behind her on Una's back.

Bia blinked her eyes several times, but did not give any further response. Lilias, however, was making pitiful squeaks and a few remarks of 'I'm so small you won't feel a thing when you eat me' or 'I'm not delicious, I taste like a bug!' or a few other comments intended to discourage the Ifrit from eating her alive.

"He's an Ifrit, a kind of supernatural beings..."

_Supernatural…_Kurapika repeated her own words in her mind. Of course. Not only that he was empathic towards spirits or the kinds, he would naturally be more perceptive to anything supernatural because of the ancient Solomonar heritage in his blood. All the more reason for Meta to be able to sense Deifri in the first place.

A savage battle cry resounded in the clearing and another fresh group of Valkyries charged towards them. They were greeted by Death in the form of rampaging blue flames that incinerated them. They did not meet their ends in a flash—they had to suffer the agony of being burned alive before their pitiful souls decided to leave their mortal bodies. Kurapika cringed at the sight, and was even more mortified to see the children watching the carnage with wide eyes. It was highly unsettling that they did not seem disturbed at the very least.

_Blue flames…_ Suddenly something clicked in Kurapika's mind. "Deifri, where have you been all this time?"

_Where, I wonder?_ The Ifrit remarked lazily.

"Answer me!"

_Sheesh, such impatience. I've been staying with you to protect your little life, order from your darling. There. Happy?_

"What…?"

_Deaf now, aren't you?_ The Ifrit sneered as he threw a few balls of blue fire over his shoulders as if he was throwing some tennis balls.

"You are the one who's been hanging around Mom, right?" Meta piped in with his trademark toothy grin.

Deifri turned to Meta with suspicious eyes.

_So you can _really_ see me, eh, midget? I've been having this creepy feeling that sometimes you're seeing right at me, but turns out I wasn't being a foolish paranoid Ifrit, after all. Blimey. _

"I was told not to speak to you, or to mention about you." The four-years-old said firmly.

_Really now? Who told you that?_

"Enough of this chit-chat." Kurapika was more than eager to drop the subject. She knew that it had to be Ishtar, but from the look of Meta—whose eyes had turned rather too glassy for her liking—she knew that the boy had not yet come to terms with Ishtar's death; or disappearance, or departure, or whatever it was.

Kurapik turned to Deifri and regarded him with a piercing stare. The Ifrit remained unaffected. He even had the nerve to pick his ear.

"If you were hanging around me, why didn't the ring turn red?"

_That's easy. And OBVIOUS,_ the Ifrit sneered at Kurapika._ When you are alone I make a conscious effort to stay as far away from you as possible, at least outside the range of your radar-ring, but maintaining you within my range of observation. Boss specifically told me not to let you notice my presence. He's annoyingly picky._

Kurapika's frown deepened. The only reason behind Kuroro's decision of making Deifri's presence as a secret that she could think of was that he did not want her to come nagging and complaining at him for thinking of her as so weak that she would need protection—which was sensible of him. She was too prideful to let herself be protected by some spirits.

_He dismissed me when he's with you, though,_ Deifri continued. _But just now hubby over there sensed you here, and so subsequently he shooed me here to be your bodyguard. Conveniently he didn't specify that I remain hidden._

"That's why you show up like this in front of me."

_I don't like being invisible,_ said the Ifrit with a noncommittal shrug.

"You just want to show off." Kurapika clucked her tongue.

_It's a nice feeling, you know._

"Like I care."

_Such bad attitude. I don't understand why my boss is so into you,_ the Ifrit tsk-ed while showering the Valkyries with another round of flaming-blue mini meteors.

"Nobody asked you to understand." Kurapika said while walking leisurely closer towards the gate of Valhalla.

_Hey, why are you going there? You're walking right into troubles, young Ma'am!_ The Ifrit called out while flowing towards her, and at the same time burned an unfortunate Valkyrie into smoking charcoal lump.

"I have business to attend here." Kurapika answered coldly.

_If you're thinking of hubby darling, he's heading over here. Why not wait here like a good wife and give him a nice sweet kiss when he finally reaches here?_

Kurapika scowled at Deifri's choices of words. He made it sound as if the two of them were a lovey-dovey couple. They were FAR from it! Anyone could see that as clear as the day!

"I don't particularly like waiting when I can do something about it." Kurapika said snappishly.

_Suit yourself. You go there, the midgets here will follow you and will see more bloodsheds. I thought you're the type who doesn't like to teach violence to kids?_

Not that Deifri knew about that for sure. He was just making a haphazard guess. The true reason of him trying to discourage Kurapika from going straight into Valhalla was because he was too lazy to deal with all those Valkyries. He was not too surprised to see Kurapika's torn expression, though. It was rather expected—he could sense that Kurapika was the kind of it's-all-about-good-manners person.

"You protect them while they wait here."

_Don't push your luck, woman. I only follow orders from my Boss. You are only his woman, not my boss._ Deifri gave a lopsided smirk that looked rather evil to Kurapika's liking.

Kurapika growled and she was about to retort when a massive explosion occurred within the compound of Valhalla. Turning around, Kurapika could see parts of buildings and some people—Valkyries and male warriors—flying off due to the impact. Afterward, there were more explosions and lightning striking here and there, lighting bolts shooting all over the place and whirlwinds messing up the place even more. Kurapika's jaws dropped as she looked on.

"What's happening?"

_I told you, your hubby darling is coming over here. Leaving a beautiful trail of destruction in his wake, I reckon,_ Deifri snickered as he crossed his legs and reclined his body back on seemingly invisible chair.

_That homicidal idiot!_ Kurapika swore inwardly.

"How did he do all those? I don't think he can control lightning with his Nen." Kurapika mused loudly.

The Ifrit snorted in dry amusement and spoke in the tone that made it sound as if Kurapika was an incompetent fool with lacks of the necessary brain cells for a simple analysis.

_The Solomon Ring, of course. What else?_

* * *

_Who were you talking to?_ Bara asked Kuroro as he kicked aside the dead body of another unfortunate Valkyrie to cross their path.

"A servant." Kuroro answered without elaboration. He had just sent Deifri to Kurapika's place for safety measure.

_Hmm…_Bara himself was not so interested in knowing further.

Another chorus of battle cries and both of them saw a horde of Valkyries and warriors coming their way with their weapons brandished. Their faces were clearly painted with bloodlust.

_Again?_ The black unicorn sighed in exasperation. _They never learn, do they?_

Kuroro merely chuckled and readied himself for another round of carnage. Bara, however, eyed him with curiosity that was accompanied with slight irritation.

_Why aren't you using those demons you have in your disposal?_

Kuroro was reluctant to answer initially, but in the end he gave his answer.

"I barely have any practice with summoning and controlling these demons." Kuroro then added as he lifted up his hand that bore the wicked Solomon Ring, "I don't really fancy taking risks in meddling with demons."

Bara looked at him with critical eyes, and then to the Solomon Ring. The ring did give off a very malicious vibe, even to a demonic unicorn like him. However, Bara could sense an aura of authority from his raven-haired human companion. While he had only known him for a while, he had this feeling that this human had more potential in dealing with demons than he believed. He smelled differently. It was true that there was a faint lingering smell of a woman about him, and also the brimstone-like stench of demons that particularly lingered about his ring-bearing hand. However, above all it was the smell of an ancient blood tinted slightly with the smell of a monster's blood that perked the black unicorn's curiosity.

_You'll do fine. I can sense it,_ and he was telling the truth._ Just use them for all they are worth. I'm getting tired of this cheap entertainment._

Kuroro smiled. That was a very reassuring statement, considering the unicorn was already half-demon so he could measure Kuroro's capability of dealing with demons. It seemed that he would have fewer problems with the Solomon Ring demons than he anticipated. Kuroro raised his hand in front of his face, his palm towards his face and the Solomon Ring towards the incoming enemies.

"_Lemegeton: Ars Goetia – Andras."_

The moment the word left his lips, all sounds seemed to be sucked into the Ring and the world fell mute. Then, the ring glowed brightly—maliciously, even—and a bright ember-like summoning circle appeared in front of the ring with a low reverberating hum. The next moment, it seemed that a portal was formed within the centre of the circle and springing forth from the ring was a demon. It was a man with angel wings on his back, with the head of a raven. The demon rode a black wolf and in his hand was a sword. The black wolf gave a savage wolf and the corner of its jaws began frothing in indication of its eagerness to join the bloodbath.

_Ah, after a few centuries of being stuck in that blasted Ring, now I'm summoned right in the smack of a battle. Very pleasurable! _The demon boomed as he fluttered his white wings. He then turned to Kuroro and addressed him rather casually, _your order, Boss?_

Kuroro frowned at the demon's attitude—it was very different from Vassago; the first demon that he had ever summoned from within the Solomon Ring. Vassago had been quiet and obedient, but Andras seemed to have a rather devil-may-care attitude. Not that it mattered much to Kuroro, anyway.

"You see those warriors and those Valkyries?" Kuroro indicated at the throng of people charging towards him—they were so intoxicated by their mead (alcohol) that they could not discern a malignant danger in the form of a winged demon.

_You mean those sexy women and those strapping men? Boy, ain't they drunk?_

"Take care of them. Make them fight among themselves, as is your specialty."

_You've done you homework well, Boss. Sure, sowing discord is my forte, even among allies. A wicked thing, ain't you? Making them go after their friends' throats._

"Said a demon." Kuroro smiled casually at the demon.

_So…You won't mind me nipping a bit at those succulent-looking fleshes, right? _The demon asked while eyeing the young Valkyries' bodies hungrily like a starving raven.

"I couldn't care less." Kuroro replied coolly.

The demon Andras fluffed the feathers on his head and grinned widely at Kuroro. He then turned and spurred his wolf to dive at the coming crowds. No sooner than when the demon reached those Valkyries and warriors, Kuroro could see that some of them instantly stopped and began swinging their blades at the people standing nearest to them. All hell broke loose then.

_Very smart. Let them fight among themselves to death so we can saunter our way out of this mess,_ commented Bara as he stood not far from Kuroro. He dug at the dirt in excitement and his diabolical red eyes stared at the fighting crowd with rather sadistic amusement.

"I'd rather not waste my energy fighting a group of intoxicated people. But it seems that some of them are sober enough."

True, some of the Valkyries had escaped from the fray and were charging towards him like a bull seeing red. Their battle cries rang viciously as they held up their respective weapons ready to strike a certain man.

_Oh, what a royal pain in the butt, these women are._ Bara rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"_Lemegeton: Ars Goetia – Furfur._" Kuroro murmured in an almost laid-back manner.

A demon appeared in the same fashion as Andras had. This time, the demon appeared in the form of an adult white deer with sparking antlers of awe-inspiring size and sturdiness. The deer regarded Kuroro with its calculating beetle-like black eyes, before asking:

_Your command, my Lord?_

"Strike them down." Kuroro said, almost with bored tone.

_It will be done,_ the deer grinned at him, and Kuroro could see the malice in it.

The white deer turned to the approaching Valkyries and pointed its antlers at them. The sparks glowed brighter, and suddenly jets of lighting shot from those antlers and blasted through the formation of the Valkyries. Some of the unfortunate Valkyries were hit head-on by the lighting and they were turned into a crisp charcoal in an instant. Kuroro heard faint dark chuckling from the deer, it sounded homicidally insane.

_Oh, I know this one,_ Bara whispered while leaning towards Kuroro. _Not a very pleasant fellow. He's a big-time liar, so be careful when dealing with him. _

"There is no point of worrying. The master of the Solomon Ring is bestowed with absolute authority over the demons. They can't lie to me."

Bara gave a whistle of approval.

_Neat stuff you have there, lad. It's not a thing so easy to procure, I believe. What did you sacrifice to get your hands on it?_

"This ring was forced onto me." Kuroro said, not really answering Bara's question.

_Even more peculiar. Ah, look there. Your demons have wonderfully cleared the way. Not exactly walk-able, though, seeing the bodies loitering here and there. _

"It doesn't make a difference." Kuroro shrugged—he had been at worse place during his Genei Ryodan missions.

_Uh oh…_

"What?"

_Here comes the Queen._

"The Queen?"

_Not a very magnanimous person, I can assure you that. In fact, I heard she's very prone to throwing tantrums. Seeing this mess, I'm positive that she'll throw one helluva tantrum. Ah, there she goes._

As if answering to Bara's testimony, the said Queen of the Valkyries—who was a beauty, admittedly, with body figure that would make all women died in shame and all men drooled senselessly, and with very elaborate armours that shone like the second sun—had raised her hand high to the sky and cried out several words that sounded dreadfully like magic incantations. Fireballs shot from around her and landed everywhere near Kuroro and Bara. One of them fizzed past him, almost burning the tip of his hair. In fact, he could catch the faint characteristic smell of singed hair.

"More Valkyries?" Kuroro remarked as he dodged another raging fireball aimed at his head.

_The Elite Force. No good, chum. They're on a wholly different level from these small fries,_ said Bara as he kicked a fireball aside. Kuroro raised an eyebrow at this; so demonic unicorn could touch magical essences without being incinerated? How intriguing.

_I'd say that it's high time to scram. Dismiss your demons, lad. We're not here to annihilate the whole clan into oblivion. _

"True." Kuroro said and turned to his demons. The two demons had sensed his intention and they looked at him somewhat expectantly. Kuroro raised his hand that bore the Solomon Ring. "You are dismissed."

With that, a summoning circle that was slightly different than before appeared and the demons leapt into the centre of the circle. They were soon swallowed by the circle; which then vanished with a short hum.

_Neat. Now hop on my back, lad!_

Kuroro gave him the "what for?" look.

_Flying is always faster than running, don't you agree?_

"Fly?" Kuroro's voice was dubious.

To substantiate his statement, Bara arched his shoulders slightly and the muscles tensed. His shoulders trembled slightly, before suddenly they contorted and something blossomed. It was a pair of massive black bat wings; although it looked more like a devil's than a bat's, considering the size and the sturdiness it displayed.

"A winged black unicorn. Very interesting." Kuroro said with a grin as he walked towards Bara and hopped on his back as per instructed.

_Very proud to say that I'm the only one. You're lucky to see me in this form._ Bara said as he beat his wings in preparation for a swift take-off.

"Indeed." Kuroro clutched two fistful of black mane.

With one powerful kick to the ground, both prisoners leapt to the open sky to make their grand escape from the wrath of a Valkyrie Queen.

* * *

The ground shook violently, making Kurapika lost her balance for a moment. Una neighed in surprise at the sudden quake but she maintained her balance and managed to keep her passengers safe on her back. The children plus Lilias gave a terrified cry and they both ducked low to Una's back. Meta hugged Una's neck as if it was his only lifeline, while Bia did the same with Meta's small waist.

"What now?" Kurapika cried out in frustration.

_Really nasty news. That bad-ass Queen is throwing a grand tantrum,_ Deifri announced as he flew higher to observe the situation in Valhalla.

"What about Kuroro?"

_Let's see…_ Deifri put a hand above his brows and began surveying the area. No sooner than he did that, he spotted his target. _There they are! Flying this way in a very nice speed. Fashionably, too. Rejoice! For you are going to see your darling hubby soon._

"Flying? Them?"

_You'll see,_ the Ifrit said, not bothering to explain the situation.

True. Soon enough, something flew towards them from distant sky. Kurapika narrowed her eyes to get better vision of the approaching objects in the sky. As the figure was getting larger as it scaled the distance between them, Kurapika almost could not believe what she was seeing.

A winged black unicorn.

More weird creatures. Great. Kurapika Kuruta was feeling faint. It seemed that she would not have enough of dealings with more weird, strange, mythical, straight-out-of-the-world (you name it) creatures.

"Kurapika!"

Hearing her name said out loud, Kurapika looked up and saw Kuroro riding the winged black unicorn.

"Ride Una and get out of here fast! Follow us! Be quick!" Kuroro ordered, and the winged stead never bothered to slow down.

Cursing lightly under her breath, Kurapika ran towards Una.

"Una, can you bear me together with the children?"

_Won't be a problem,_ the unicorn answered readily.

_I'll be right behind you, _the Ifrit announced,_ to save your hides from those Valkyries hot on your heels._

"Why, thank you so much. I'm in your debt." Kurapika said to the Ifrit with venomous sarcasm dripping from her words.

_Don't mention it._

_Asshole,_ Kurapika muttered inwardly.

* * *

They rode on breakneck speed, and Kurapika was starting to worry for Una's legs and heart. While the black-horned unicorn showed no sign of fatigue, Kurapika could not help but to recall the cases when some people just dropped dead when they were in the middle of running because they overworked their hearts. Kurapika would glare then at the flying horse above them, and then she would glance over her shoulders. The Valkyries did not seem to be hot on their heels anymore, considering the speed that they had picked up since the beginning.

Having had Una as her companion when she travelled to carry out her Hunter duties, Kurapika had mastered the high-level equestrian skills as often she had to cover long distances in short time spans. Running on breakneck speed was not something new, but they had never run at such top speed for hours like that.

Yeah, it had been hours since they first ran from the vicinity of Valhalla and Kurapika was starting to have cramps. Looking at the children sitting in front of her, safely tucked between her body and Una's neck, Kurapika noticed how Meta had simply leaned on the unicorn's neck—with notable look of boredom on his face—but Bia was clutching at Kurapika's shirt as if she was her only lifeline. Kurapika understood Bia's nervousness; this was perhaps the first time she had ever ridden a horse at such dreadful speed.

Meta was a whole different case. He practically grew up on Una's back in his earlier years. Kurapika would always carry him whenever she went on missions—not that she had no faith in Fino and her family to take care of him while she was away, but she just felt the need to look after him personally—and she would put him in a basket slung on Una's flanks when she had to move around the sites. Sitting on Una's back and galloping with her was equal to sitting on any normal chairs for him—just like how it was to Kurapika. As such, the ride was more or less drearily boring and non-exhilarating for him.

Lilias was still perching on Meta's head. Sometime she could hear the pitiful wails and whimpers from the small fairy. Kurapika then would shake her head in exasperation but said nothing.

They only stopped when they were some good miles away from Valhalla. The flying unicorn above suddenly dived towards the sea of forest below it, and it landed with its passenger a few hundred metres from Una. They could see Kuroro dismounting the black winged unicorn and talking to it in a very casual manner. Una decelerated and stopped a few metres away from the foreign unicorn, extremely wary to be on close proximity with the black mythical horse. It had been ages since the last time she saw one of her kinds, this was the first time she ever met one of the renegades.

"Una, are you okay?" Kurapika asked while patting her neck.

_Una is fine,_ answered Una, though her eyes were fixed on the black unicorn; who was looking at her with something in his blood-red eyes.

Bia looked around and, upon noticing that the ride had come to a stop, nudged at Meta who was already dozing off. Meta drawled a slurry "mornin'", causing Bia to shake her head and poked his head.

"Good job keeping up with us, Una. He honestly didn't believe that you can keep up." Kuroro said as he walked towards them. The black unicorn stayed where he stood.

"What's the deal with that black unicorn?"

"I'll tell you if you come with me. Bia, Meta," Kuroro turned to the children and gave away a very amused look on his face when he saw Meta still dozing off—he had not anticipated that the boy would be lull to sleep when riding a horse at breakneck speed—before continuing, "you come with us."

Bia nodded and she pinched Meta awake. The blond boy yelped in pain and complained at the white-haired boy. Kurapika observed the two briefly, absentmindedly wondering on why they had such good chemistry in such short time. Dismissing it as children's tendency to make friends with just whoever they met, Kurapika dismounted Una and helped the children down one by one.

_Kuroro, who is he?_ Una asked Kuroro warily.

"Someone who knows you and is eager to talk with you." Kuroro raised a hand and patted Una's mane reassuringly. "Don't worry, he means no harm."

Una nodded wordlessly, but her tail swished in a very nervous and agitated manner. Kuroro then shepherded the group away from Una, with Kurapika sporting a very confused and disapproving look. When they were about out of earshot of the two unicorns, Kurapika stopped and put her hands akimbo.

"So." She said sternly. "Explanation."

"So impatient, Kurapika." Kuroro chuckled but stopped his pace nonetheless. He turned around and shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. "Like I told Una, that black unicorn knows her."

"How?"

"You remember why Una was chased away by her folks?"

"…Because she's the daughter of the traitorous uni…corn…" Realization dawned in Kurapika's feature and she whipped around to take a good look at the unicorns. The black unicorn had approached Una and they were talking softly. Una had a disbelieving look on her face, and she seemed stunned. "Don't tell me he's…"

"Una's father; Bara."

Kurapika stared at the two unicorns for a while, before turning to Kuroro with a slight frown.

"Are you sure?"

"_This_ didn't say otherwise," said Kuroro while tapping his left eye with one finger—the eye that had been bequeathed with Ishtar's True Vision ability when his left restrainer had broken.

Kurapika's frown turned into a very intrigued face.

"Tell me more."

Kuroro's grin grew wider.

* * *

_Hello, Una. Nice to see you've grown up beautifully,_ Bara said as he ambled towards the nervous younger unicorn.

_Who are you?_ Una asked. She was very tempted to take one step back, but it would seem too rude. Not to mention that this suspicious unicorn had just saved Kuroro. The least she could do was to show some respect.

_You don't remember me? Ah…Right, you were just a newborn when I was kicked out by the Elders. Of course you won't remember me._ Bara shook his head. _But honestly, I've been looking for you for ages since I heard that those old-timers kicked you out as well! Lad over there told me that you've been staying with his woman. _(Not that Kuroro blatantly used the word 'woman' when referring to Kurapika; no, he was never that vulgar)_ No wonder I can't find you. I never get near human dwellings._

_Who are you?_ Una repeated her question with more emphasis, ignoring the strange unicorn's cheerful chatters.

Bara grinned impishly.

_Say hello to your father, Una._

Silence descended among them like thick syrup that threatened to drown them. Una stayed rooted to her hoofs, unable to mobilise an ounce of her muscles. Her father! Her father was right here in front of her! The figure that she had always imagined, that she had always longed to see but was not willing to search for fear of rejection. She was mortally afraid that her father would not acknowledge her. At the same time, Una was afraid to go in search of her father as it would mean leaving Kurapika behind, and it would feel like she chose to leave that little family she had created with the human. She was accepted by Kurapika, she had become her family.

But here was her father, standing in his full glory right in front of her—in his full tainted glory.

His black mane and body glistened almost menacingly under the dim sunlight that scarcely managed to penetrate the thick canopy above. His ruby eyes stared at her in anticipation. His bat-like wings were suspended on his flanks, seemingly had been forgotten.

_Cat got your tongue, daughter?_

Her folks had told her terrible tales about her father—that he was evil, that he had made a pact with a demon to gain its power, that he had threatened the peace of their community, that he had disgraced them in the worst way imagined. Looking at him right now; all black from horn to hoofs, Una understood just how far her father had supposedly 'fallen', but it mattered little to her. There was a logic that had whispered to her heart: if Kuroro allowed the black unicorn to get near them, it meant that he really meant no harm. Kuroro would not have allowed any danger factors to get near his _family_.

Perhaps she should have been more suspicious and wary when this unicorn suddenly declared himself her father. However, there was no benefit whatsoever when a unicorn—renegade or not—claimed to be the father of a renegade unicorn. If this unicorn claimed so, then it could only be the truth.

Without any more hesitance, Una charged at Bara and thrust her cheek at her father's strong neck. She rubbed her head urgently against Bara's neck and head, her gesture full of yearnings and longings.

_Whoa, whoa, easy, girl. _Bara chuckled. _Aren't you a passionate one, just like your mother._

At the mention of her mother, Una could not help but to shed droplets of pearly tears. The day she was born into the world was the day she took away her mother's life. She had never remembered any of her parents' faces, but one of them had shown up now.

Bara drew back slightly and licked the tears that streamed down Una's cheek. He then looked right into her eyes with his piercing demonic eyes.

_Tell me, Una. How did you survive before you stay with that couple over there?_

Like a child who had been released from her kidnappers and was asked about how she was treated by those criminals, Una began telling her tale to her long-lost father.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__I know, I know. Late update, super late update. I can't help it, deadline for my animation project was coming fast and I had 200++ pages to draw! And we're not allowed to use computer for the drawing part, all hand-drawn. Imagine the stress level. Oh well… _

_I had fun writing about how Kuroro trashed the Valkyries with his Solomon Ring demons. I guess it's time for those demons to make more appearance? What do you think? Btw, __**are you interested in knowing Una's childhood or do you just want to skip it**__? I noticed that some of you are quite a fan of Una._

_**Next:**__ Una was finally able to meet with her father. That aside, how would they continue their journey to Ryuusei-gai when they were stranded in Erin Continent? Well, they did have a (rather useless) fairy and two unicorns with them, though._


	25. Chapter 23: Communion

_**Disclaimer: **__Still not mine, unfortunately._

_**PS**__: If there are any spelling or grammars errors, please let it pass. I'm too tired to re-read the whole thing (10,000++ words!) to check for those kind of hard-to-detect-unless-you-squint mistakes. So yeah…_

_**Story so far:**__ Kuroro finally managed to escape the Valkyries with the help of Bara the black unicorn, despite leaving a trail of destruction in his wake—as Deifri had eloquently put it. For the first time, Una faced her estranged father. How would things go for the two renegade unicorns? Also, what about the humans' journey to Ryuusei-gai, now that they had two unicorns in their disposal?_

* * *

**Chapter 23**

_**COMMUNION**_

* * *

_You freaking chased them out of the tribe? Are you out of your friggin' mind?_

The angry outburst came from a black unicorn that stood lividly before five other pure white unicorns. Those other unicorns were larger and sturdier than the black unicorn by far, and they were undisputedly seeping with air of absolute authority. What differentiated them from the others was not only the sheer size, but also their horns: they were golden. They were the Elders of the Unicorns. Their words were Laws for the tribe, and their ages were something that they had lost count of. They had existed when mankind was still backwater in their technology and civilisation.

Despite the rude statements from the black unicorns, the Elders remained unfazed.

_They have absolutely nothing to do with me! I took in the demon in my own accord without their consultation! Heck, my child is even conceived before I met that demon. And my mate! She has just gone through birth labour and now you forced her out of the safety of the tribe? You are all crazy bunch of ancient horses!_

Still the Elders stood like a stone wall.

_The orders and the laws of the tribe have to be upheld. We shall not make any exceptions. _

Bara was beyond enraged. His red eyes—tainted by the essence of the demon that he stored within his body—glowed in an unearthly fashion. Wind stirred uneasily around him, disturbing the vegetation around him. The nearby bushes suddenly decayed and disintegrated into grains; Bara was losing his control over Apaosa the demon of aridity.

_If you think you can beat us just because you host a demon, you are naïve. You are still centuries too early to think of overwhelming even one of us,_ One of the Elders; presumably the oldest of them and thus effectively the leader, scoffed at his temper.

The wind simmered down before finally settling into its natural course. The tension in the area, however, was far from being loosened up. Bara glared at them, hoping that his looks could really kill them. After a few seconds, the Eldest had had enough of facing a renegade unicorn like him and decided to leave the 'meeting'. Without any more words, he turned around and walked away haughtily. The other Elders followed suit. One Elder lagged behind, so that she could say one final sentence to him:

_I heard your mate calling your newborn daughter 'Una'._

And then she walked away to follow the other Elders.

Bara had been too taken aback when he was granted that information by that female Elder. He knew that she was the most lenient one among the Elders, but that final gesture by her had earned her his utmost gratitude. The black unicorn had been so preoccupied with the news about his mate and his daughter Una that he did not hear the small conversation engaged by the Elders.

_You are too generous with him. He may be one of your descendants, but that does not mean you can favour him like that,_ one of the Elders chided the female Elder mildly.

_I was not being kind or magnanimous. I just do not think it as harmful to say such insignificant piece to just anyone,_ the female Elder said icily.

The tone of the female Elder indicated finality, so the others did not pursue the matter further. Her argument was sensible enough, anyway.

When the Elders had disappeared among the crowds of trees of the forest, Bara was still standing rooted on the ground. Una, the Elder had told him. His daughter's name was Una. She was somewhere out there, together with his beloved mate, wandering the forest without protection. Una was only a newborn foal, his mate was still exhausted from the birth labour. He had to find them.

Without sparing another thought, Bara sprung and dashed through the forest, determined to track down his exiled family. Inside his heart, his rage was boiling like magma. He could hardly believe it. This was how the Elders treated him; like an insignificant little cretin, while he had just saved their sorry skins.

No, scratch that. He had just saved the whole tribe from annihilation.

xXx

_**What are you looking at, brat?**_

The thick, greasy voice was scalding and derisive, but there was an underlying tone of weakness. The owner of the voice was dying. That much was obvious from how its body—scaly and coal black, yet the face was ashen white—slowly and painfully disintegrating into fine black grains. In fact, those grains dripping from its body seemed more like a pool of liquefied darkness.

_Brat? I'm a full grown unicorn, no thanks to you,_ Bara replied with equal 'fervour'. _What are you? I saw you changing from a form of black horse into this…shape._

_**Blind or imbecile. Which are you? Or is it both?**_ The creature sitting on the ground sneered despite its foreboding demise.

_I'll vouch for ignorant. Those stuck-up bitches and son of bitches of the Elders never allow us to venture too far from the herd. What do they think I am? A bawling baby? Ceh._

_**A thoroughly immature and foul-mouthed unicorn, that's for sure. I'll say they're afraid you'll make enemies of other more powerful and hot-tempered creatures—which is ultimately inevitable, I bet.**_

_Like you don't have foul mouth yourself,_ Bara countered in annoyance. This creature really had no manner!

_**Shut up, you youngling. Care to let a demon have the last piece of his dwindling life all by himself peacefully without rude interruption of some obnoxious, meddling unicorn?**_ The said demon groused and lay down on the ground tiredly.

_So you are really a demon,_ Bara exclaimed triumphantly.

_**Don't give me that 'I knew it' crap. I don't bloody buy it. Now scram before I make you.**_

_Can you? You look like you're breaking apart like some dying cinders. Or coals._

The demon simply sighed wearily and did not bother to waste his breath replying to Bara's provocative remarks. He was already closing his eyes when suddenly that impossibly beyond annoying unicorn bugged him again.

_Just like that? You'll just die like that and that's all? How surprisingly boring. I thought demons die in a very flashy manner._

…_**You got me, brat.**_ The demon gave a cackling sound before he looked up and gazed at the unicorn's eyes. _**I say peaceful and all, but that's for me. You don't know who I am, do you?**_

_Unfortunately, the ignorant me haven't a clue. Enlighten me, please?_

_**I'm Apaosa, a demon of aridity and drought. Demons are higher beings than you measly unicorns. Now don't you give me that look, that's a given fact, brat. When we die, we don't just disappear like some magic tricks. When our essence dies, we take along whatever around us. Wicked, eh?**_The demon began laughing eerily.

_Wicked, alright. You're not just pulling my hoofs, aren't you?_

The demon snorted. _**For what? I don't waste the last minutes of my life playing worthless pranks on some insignificant horses like you. You entertained me, brat, so I'm giving you a piece of advice: run for your life before I die. Though…**_ the demon's white face pulled a sinister Glasgow smile, _**I don't think you can cover several miles in one shot. **_

Given the 'statistic', Bara knew that if the demon died and his words were the truth, his tribe—which coincidentally were grassing just a few miles away from the spot, undoubtedly within the range of the side effect of Apaosa's death—would be wiped away. Though he had heard that demons were deceitful and one should never believe a word they said—although sometimes those royal-pain-in-the-ass demons made use of this common concept about demons and said the truth so that their opponents would mistake it as a lie—Bara had the feeling that Apaosa was being serious.

_Seriously?_

_**Now I'm convinced that you're an imbecile. If you don't value your life, stay here at my deathbed and be the first and last witness of a demon's death. You don't get this kind of chance often, you know.**_

_For something that's dying, you are talkative._

_**Just trying to distract you, is all.**_ The demon laughed again.

The demon's body was now decaying at an alarming speed. The pool of the black grains from his body was spreading like plague, and Bara took several steps back warily.

_Is your death really inevitable? No other way around it?_ The unicorn asked rather hesitantly. Though he did not really fancy helping a demon, he would be willing to do so if he could save his tribe. His mate was pregnant, for goodness' sake!

_**Now that you mention it, there is actually.**_ The demon freaking yawned. _**This is my body deteriorating. If I can get another vessel to contain my essence—which is still somewhat intact—then I'll survive and this land won't get dried up like mummy.**_

_Any requirement for that so-called vessel?_

_**Not really. Anything that I fancy. I can take a cracked kettle for my vessel for all I care, but nah…**_ The demon seemed resigned and even determined to die, it agitated Bara to no end.

_If you adopt a living creature, let's say a human, for your vessel. What'll happen to that human?_

_**Depends. Most likely their soul, or spirit, or whatever, will get overridden by my essence, and the body will be completely mine, unless they have really REALLY strong soul—which is damn rare. Never seen one before. I don't fancy human body, though. Too fragile to my liking. **_

_What about me?_

…_**Say what?**_

_Is my body good enough a vessel for you?_ Bara repeated.

The demon gave him a disbelieving look, before he broke into mirthful laugh. There was undoubtedly condescending tone in his laugh, causing Bara to flinch.

_**You are offering your body to me, is that is, brat? My, oh my. Aren't you one intriguing specimen, despite your ignorance? Well well, what say I? Perhaps I shall take your offer and see what I can do with your tribe. Annihilate them? No, that's boring. Shall I—**_

_So I'm good enough._ Bara interjected him impatiently.

The demon stopped his rambling and looked at the unicorn with newfound keen interest. He eyed him from the point of his horn to the end of his tail. Bara was a fine unicorn; one of the best so-called fighters among his peers. The only thing that he was concerned with was his spirit's capability to control the demon once Apaosa invaded his physical body. His goal was to seal the demon inside his body. He only thought of the safety of his mate and soon-to-be-born child.

_**Yes, yes. You are good. I like you, brat. Now, I shall make your body mine, and CRUSH your soul and spirit from within.**_

_Let's see you try that,_ Bara challenged him as he took a fighting stance—though he did not know whether it was a necessary gesture or not.

_**Of course!**_ Apaosa the demon of aridity suddenly rose up from the ground, his body becoming a pillar of shiny black grains that loomed over the unicorn, _**EN GARDE!**_

* * *

"So…" Kurapika tapped her fingers on her forearms as she had crossed her arms. "He won the inner battle, and consequently his body was tainted black. He passed out, and woke up only to find himself being caged by the magic of the Elders. I'm surprised that those Unicorns have that kind of magic."

"Ditto." Kuroro said coolly.

"After a few days of trial, he was labelled as 'renegade' and so exiled from the tribe. By then, his mate and Una had already been kicked out of the tribe? That's ridiculous. Those Elders were purposely making his life harder!"

"Don't complain to me." Kuroro shrugged. "Ask those Elders about their Laws."

Kurapika ignored Kuroro's passing remark.

"He went to look for Una and her mother, but couldn't find them. He visited Chiron in search of her just when she had departed to travel with us, and his mate had died long before." Kurapika grimaced at this last piece of information. "Is that all?"

"That is all he managed to tell me during our flight." Kuroro nodded.

"That's a lot of things." Kurapika said accusingly.

"You don't sound too happy." The Spider Head pointed out.

"Should I be happy when Una had to run all the way with three persons on her back, when she's barely into her adulthood?" Kurapika deadpanned with narrowed eyes.

"She looks fine to me. You underestimate her too much, Kurapika." Kuroro smiled thinly at her. "Have you forgotten how six years ago she carried the two of us on her back while galloping three days straight to Rukuso Mountain with barely decent breaks in-between?"

Kurapika had honestly forgotten it, reason being at that time she was still half-conscious due to the effort of sleeping off a certain terrible hangover caused by one particular April Fools fiasco.

"I'm just worried." She said defensively.

"You are a worry-wart." Kuroro said in a rather chastising manner.

"Inherent issue." Kurapika shrugged.

"Which can be fixed."

"There is nothing to be fixed about it!"

"You'll grow grey hair before you know it."

"That's none of your business!"

Ah, back to the old routine.

"Do you honestly think this _does not_ concern me?"

Kurapika was speechless. He was right; of course it did concern him when considering their circumstances—after all, he had acknowledged them as a _family_, in a way (strange and odd as it might sound, it coming from none other than Kuroro Lucifer of the notorious Genei Ryodan)

"You should trust the people around you more, Kurapika." Kuroro said with an easy smile.

Of all people, she had to be lectured about trust by Kuroro Lucifer; a murderer, thief, criminal, etc. etc, although he had the right to do so—he had displayed unwavering trust towards his Spiders during their missions. And his words made perfect sense. When she worried too much about someone, it could mean that she did not trust that person's capability or she had given too little credit on that person.

"Fine, fine." Kurapika grumbled. "But that aside," Kurapika looked up and at him askance. "Just what was the extent of damage you inflicted back there?"

"Back there?"

"In Valhalla, when you're escaping."

"Ah…" An amused smile was played ever so faintly on his lips. "Does it matter?"

"Yes in the sense that I have to see just how more homicidal you've become. You used the Solomon Ring, didn't you?"

"Two demons, to be exact. They are not particularly high level, for your information." Suddenly, something clicked in Kuroro's mind as he noticed the slightly puzzled look on Kurapika's face. "Ah, you have never seen the workings of the Solomon Ring, haven't you?"

At this, Kurapika scowled.

"I have the feeling I rather not witness it at all, considering on what I've seen from far away when you trashed those Valkyries." Kurapika said flatly. "People flying off. Pieces of buildings blown away. Lightings and gales. It was as if Natures herself ran amok. Just how powerful is the Solomon Ring?"

"Well…I suppose it is powerful enough to destroy the world should I wish it."

Kurapika frowned deeply.

"Although that prospect isn't so assuring, but I don't think you're interested in conquering or destroying the world, or whatever that falls under the typical grandiosely evil villain archetype." Kurapika snorted. "You're more of a down-to-earth criminal."

For once, Kurapika was relieved that Kuroro was not ambitious in his 'career'. He simply went about his 'occupation' doing whatever he pleased, without any set goals. She knew that he would not bother about conquering or destroying the world, as he did indulge himself in worldly pleasures. What was the point of him destroying it? As for the matter of conquering, well, she had the feeling that Kuroro thought of the idea as far too clichéd and old-fashioned in some ways. She could only hope that the man would guard that Solomon Ring jealously—which he always did with all his possessions, anyway.

Kuroro laughed lightly, and Kurapika was slightly taken aback. It had been a while since the last time she heard him laughing. It sounded really pleasing to her ears, though she would never _ever _admit it out loud. The gesture brought a very faint smile to her lips, though her brows remained furrowed.

"What's so funny?" She said with a feeble attempt to lace her words with irritated tone.

"Don't you find it ironic? You, a person with too strong a sense of justice that sometimes gets the better of your logic—"

"HEY!"

"—and me, an S-rank criminal. Look at us. Look at him." Kuroro nodded his chin to the direction of Meta.

"What about me?" The boy piped in excitedly. He had been observing his parents talking, and he took delight in it for one reason and another. Bia merely observed them with her typical blank face, but her fingers were interlaced with Meta's. He could understand her although she never attempted to communicate with him like how she did with others. It was refreshing. It was somehow liberating for her.

"Meta, what did I tell you about eavesdropping on people's conversation?" Kurapika reprimanded the boy sternly.

Inwardly Kurapika was afraid of the boy overhearing their conversation; she was unsure yet if the boy was aware of his father being a criminal. She did not wish for Meta to know that fact by overhearing people's conversation; it would instil a bad impression on his young mind. She would let him know in due time, but not at the moment.

"But Mom!"

Before either Kuroro or Kurapika could say anything, Bia tugged at the boy's hand and shook her head, causing her white hair to sway gently about her head. She then pulled him along, away from the conversing adults. She sat down on the grassy ground under the shade of a tree and gestured at the younger boy to do the same. With a grand pout, Meta settled next to her and hugged one of her arms sulkily.

Kurapika raised her eyebrows in amazement. Meta could be a royal pain when he decided to be stubborn and difficult, but never before had Kurapika had an easy time calming him down when he was in sulky mode as Bia had done. Somehow, Bia acted as Meta's pacifier to certain extent.

"Judging from your look, Bia seems to have done a better job handling Meta's tempers than you do." Kuroro analysed out loud with a smirk of amusement playing on his face.

"…Something like that…" Kurapika muttered begrudgingly.

"Anyway," Kuroro waved one dismissive hand gesture, "that aside, don't you find our situation peculiar?"

"What 'situation', to be specific?"

"Come on, Kurapika, you know what I'm talking about."

Kurapika glared at him, but he took the glare easily as if she was smiling at him. After a while, Kurapika looked away with a huff of annoyance.

"I don't even know how it ends up like this. The damage is done, so there's nothing to be done about it." She muttered with low voice.

"You consider this as a 'damage'?" Kuroro was approaching her stealthily.

"It's just a figure of speech! Sheesh!" Kurapika rolled her eyes. "I'm just trying to say that what's done is done."

"Do you regret it?"

"…No." Kurapika said with small voice, though she was actually _not_ hesitant about her answer. "I'm just concerned about his future, considering how different our paths are."

"There you go again. Worry, worry, worry." Kuroro chuckled.

"Is it a crime to worry, honestly?" Kurapika said waspishly.

"I'm just saying that you should take a break from worrying. Besides, let the boy decide on his own after he has seen the world."

"I don't want to expose him to _your_ side of world." Kurapika scowled. "I doNOT want him to be a criminal like you."

"I'm not implying that he should follow my path." Kuroro countered. "He should see the world for what it is, its true face. That's all there is to it."

For a split second, Kurapika was almost convinced by Kuroro's smooth words. Then, she remembered that he was slightly off with his psychology. While there was certain wisdom in his words, he lacked the sense of righteousness. If she was to retrace his words and rethought about it, while he did not imply directly that Meta should follow his path, at the same time he had been implying that if Meta chose to be a criminal then it was his right to do so and Kurapika should accept it as it was. There was no way in hell that she was going to allow that to happen!

Apparently, Kuroro noticed the consternation displayed blatantly on Kurapika's face. He stepped forward and pinched her cheek lightly. The gesture did take her off guard.

"You frown a lot, don't you?"

"S, so what?" She slapped away his hand not unkindly. To hide the blush that was creeping its way to her face, Kurapika turned her back towards him.

"Hmm…" Kuroro hummed indiscreetly as he stared at the back of Kurapika's head.

_You know, Boss,_ a voice suddenly reverberated in the air, _she says all these and does all those (like a stuck up bitch,_ the voice 'thought')_, but you should know that back there she intended to storm right into that hellhole called Valhalla just to find you. Sweet, eh? Couldn't stay still for one goddamn second 'coz she was so eager to see you._

The voice snickered, and Kurapika recognised it as the voice of that blasted Ifrit. She felt like blowing Deifri into smithereens, but she reined her tempers and decided to just ignore that little _embellished_ (or not) 'leak'.

"Oh?"

Kurapika could hear the amusement in Kuroro's voice. Whenever she heard that _particular_ ring in his voice, she could almost be sure all the time that it did not bode well _for her_, one way or another. True enough, without any warning whatsoever, Kuroro 'attacked' her from behind with a huge embrace around her shoulders.

"Agh!" Kurapika cried out carelessly, making the children jumped in surprise at the sudden commotion.

"I'm so flattered, Kurapika." Kuroro declared cheerfully. Whether he did so out of pure sincerity or just to annoy the living hell out of her, Kurapika had not the faintest idea. Nevertheless, it was successful in driving her nuts.

_She was so focused on you she almost forgot about those brats there,_ Deifri added all too eagerly.

"Deifri, shut up!"

_Aw, you hear that, Boss? She didn't deny it! _The invisible Ifrit then began whistling provocatively.

Kurapika let out a groan of frustration.

"So I noticed." Kuroro chuckled.

Her hands bristled in barely contained embarrassment and fury.

"Kurapika," Kuroro leaned forward so that he whispered right to her ear, "the children are watching."

At this, Kurapika's body tensed up and stopped bristling. From the corner of her eyes she indeed could see Meta and Bia looking at them with big eyes; especially Meta—he looked positively elated as if he had just received an early Christmas gift. While she had planned on elbowing Kuroro hard on the solar plexus and perhaps kicked him on the shin, she had to abort the plan as it would give a very bad impression on the children; especially Meta. Kurapika definitely did not have the heart to allow that to happen.

Consequently, she could only sigh heavily and resign to her 'fate'. Sensing her relaxing in his arms, Kuroro's grin broadened in satisfaction. Kurapika twisted her neck slightly so that she could glare pointedly (the angle giving her an added bonus 'pointed-ness') right at his obsidian eyes—which were laughing in a very irritating way (for her).

"You are a conniving bastard, Kuroro."

"I know. You told me so countless time before." Kuroro laughed faintly; Kurapika could feel the low rumble of his chest through her back.

"Yes, indeed!" She exclaimed dramatically. "Now can you _please_ let go of me?"

"I don't feel like it."

"Oh, of course!" Kurapika rolled her eyes. "So what now? Do I have to kiss you to win my 'freedom'?" She said sarcastically. The next moment, she regretted ever saying those words.

Kuroro raised his eyebrows quizzically, but his smirk broadened.

"Honestly, I hadn't thought of that. Thank you for suggesting it, Kurapika. I would love that." He said teasingly while hugging her tighter.

_Me and my big mouth!_ Kurapika berated herself. She was tempted to stomp her feet, childish an action as it might be.

"Hmm… Perhaps I should do this more often." Kuroro said again musingly.

"What? No way!" She sounded like a squashed mouse, and she felt like she shrunk manifolds.

_Well, well, well. Lovey-dovey, aren't we?_ A low male voice could be heard approaching.

Both of them looked up in time to see Bara approaching them—his wings had been furled back—with Una in tow slightly behind him. Bara's ruby eyes glinted with amused light, while Una had a rather incredulous expression.

_This is…new…_ Una said with slightly timid voice. She was utterly not used to see the two of them engaging in such newlywed intimacy—bickering like old married couple was the usual scene of them she was used to see.

"I, I—" Kurapika was speechless, and her face felt like it was on fire.

"So you're done?" Kuroro said casually.

_Yep, we've had our heart-to-heart. Never would've thought you'll be doing the same. That your woman, lad? _

"Yes."

Kurapika elbowed him in the stomach.

"I'm not just your 'woman'!" She complained, feeling derogated by such term.

"Fine, then." Kuroro shrugged; unfazed by her earlier abuse, and soon broke into a smug grin, "wife."

"What the—" Kurapika squeaked again.

_C'mon, make up your mind, lady,_ Bara rolled his eyes. _You're such a denial queen. You two are obviously married, what with those matching rings, the kids, and all. What's the big deal of him calling you his woman? Okay, maybe it sounds too rude, but 'wife'? That's just stating the status quo, isn't it? Seriously, what's your problem?_

Had Killua and Leorio been present there, they would have laughed their heads off while rolling on the ground like some idiots because of the fact that someone had blatantly told Kurapika straight on her face that something was wrong with her. To be honest, they often entertained that very idea but were too afraid to express it lest Kurapika decided to scourge them for it. Gon, on the other hand, would simply blink; him not understanding what was so funny.

Too shocked by the sudden tirade of accusations and the truth of their situation suddenly being lied down before her in the most palpable manner, Kurapika could only be slack-jawed.

"There you go, wife." Kuroro said again, removing one arm from her shoulders and draping the other one across those slumped shoulders in a very possessive manner.

"Shut up. Just…shut up." Kurapika said patchily as she recovered fairly slowly and began massaging the bridge of her nose. She had the feeling that she would be having grand headache if Bara stayed with them for too long.

Bara's words were fair enough, though, since factually both Kurapika and Kuroro had been telling other people that they were married—usually for the excuse of getting rid of some annoying men and women respectively—although they had never mentioned each other's name. Still, while being referred to as 'woman' was positively insulting for Kurapika, being called 'wife' by Kuroro just seemed too…outlandish.

Kuroro chuckled very amusedly, causing Kurapika to glower at him lividly.

"Well, so what comes now?" Kuroro asked the two unicorns.

_You do know that we are at the border of Erin Continent, just next to the dessert of Ruthenia—well, not exactly but practically anyway—don't you? _Bara asked.

"We are?" Kurapika looked up. _No wonder the air was so unusually dry despite being in a forest like this,_ she thought.

_Sure we are, lady. So now, we are thinking of taking the four of you to the forest of Ryuusei-gai. That's as far as we can go._

"Why?" Kurapika asked; her annoyance slowly diminishing now that they were engaging in a very much normal—context-wise—conversation.

_There is a barrier that separates the city from the forest. It prevents creatures like us from passing through,_ Una answered for them. _Una thinks it's the temple that you told me about._

"Ishtar's Temple…" Kurapika murmured.

"That will suffice." Kuroro decided. He let go of Kurapika—she did not even notice this—and motioned at the children to come closer to them. Both Bia and Meta scrambled to their feet and skipped their way to the adults and the unicorns.

"What about seating arrangement?" Kurapika asked. Inwardly, she crossed her fingers: I absolutely do not want to ride that ridiculously annoying black unicorn.

* * *

The Prancing Pony was almost never closed all years round. Almost, because there was only one occasion when it was closed for public:

The gathering of the Genei Ryodan.

During the first gathering of the whole gang, the Spiders had scared and freaked the living daylight out of the customers. Appearance-wise they were already odd and intimidating enough—although members like Shizuku were generally ignored as they looked normal and decent enough—but the worst came from the more 'sensitive' members who disliked being stared at. One fine specimen: Nobunaga Hazama.

"Sorry that you have to close the inn for a few days. Again…" Shalnark rubbed the back of his neck with slight guilt.

"Nah, it's alright. Besides, I'd rather have the inn closed than having my poor customers scared witless." Fino shrugged as she continued drying the washed dishes. "My parents can use the break as well."

Although Fino was unusually immune—fascinated, even—to strange things like unicorns and peculiar people like the Spiders, her parents were unfortunately normal in all possible human aspects. She remembered how her mother had fainted on the spot when she saw Franklin stepping into the inn while her father; even better, had tried to grab a shot gun. The only thing that prevented him from going into shooting spree at the sight of the whole gang was because Shalnark had taken matters into his hands by gently knocking the kind old man out cold (a hit on the nape; an old yet all-time effective trick). When the two of them came around, Fino had to explain things to them and to reassure them that the new guests were no monsters despite their odd appearances.

"So," Fino started when she was finished with the last of the dishes and wiped her hands on her apron, "that new guy you've just introduced to the Spiders."

"What of him?" Shalnark asked as he proceeded to carry the huge trays full of clean dishes and followed Fino as she started putting them back on their assigned places.

"Hmmm… He reminds me of someone…" Fino frowned as her hands systematically worked with the dishes as if they had a mind of their own.

"Let me guess. Lucian?" Shalnark grinned.

"Right! Correct! His attitude and behaviour is so much like Lucian, although Lucian is harder to approach because he has this icy aura about him." Fino gesticulated energetically. "Maybe that's because he's a vampire?"

"I guess?" Shalnark shrugged. "Evidence that Heen is so much like Lucian is that he manages to irritate Nobu beyond the cap of his temper on their first meeting." He laughed.

True enough, when Nobunaga had finally reached the Prancing Pony Inn and stepped into the inn, his eyebrows had twitched in illogical irritation at the first sight of the olive-skinned man wearing white suit. The first part of the introduction: name and age—Shalnark had told him that it was unnecessary to disclose personal information if Heen did not wish to; the Spiders did not care much about it—had gone smoothly, but the onset of the disaster had come when Nobunaga had rudely questioned Heen's capability. Heen had responded with an action—he used his electromagnetism Nen ability to attract Nobunaga's sword to his hands—accompanied with a smart-assed remark ("And what do they say about samurai without their swords?")

Then, all hell broke loose.

The only thing that prevented the Prancing Pony Inn from being destroyed in the process was (very surprisingly) Fino's intervention.

She had stepped into the dining hall and regarded them with a puppy-eye look.

"_Don't destroy the inn, please? This place is my parents' treasure."_

Immediately, Nobunaga and Heen bowed their heads down guiltily—like two adults caught red-handed while bullying a child—before they stormed out of the inn to 'bring it down' outside where they could go wild as they pleased. Some of the more sedate Spiders shook their head, most others fell into frantic betting session.

"_I see the beginning of a beautiful friendship,"_ Phinks had snickered as he watched the ongoing fight from the window.

"_Beautifully destructive…" _Franklin had added with a sigh.

Fino did not care about it as long as her inn remained intact. For some reasons, she had her own ways with the Spiders, and at the same time the Spiders felt completely at ease around the normal girl as if she was part of them—which she technically was not. There were not many average normal people who could serve the entire Genei Ryodan without breaking a nervous sweat.

"Do you think they're done with their rough-housing?" Fino asked as she closed the last cabinet of the dishes.

"Hm…Judging from the noises, I don't think so." Shalnark said as he cocked his head sideways as if to get a better hearing of the commotion raging outside the inn.

Suddenly, the kitchen door swung open not too roughly as Phinks waltzed in with a bored look on his eyebrow-less face.

"Yo, Fino. Have any booze?"

"I do but you have to pay for it." Fino smiled kindly at him.

"Just put it in my tab." Phinks waved a dismissive hand.

"In CASH, please." Fino maintained the smile on her face, but her tone indicated the underlying pay-me-with-cash-otherwise-forget-about-your-damn-booze message.

"Damn." The burly man muttered with no real meanness in his tone. He reached for his wallet. "Shalnark must've warned you. How much?"

"Which one do you want?" Shalnark asked as he handed his fellow Spider the beverage menu.

"Let's see…" Phinks scanned the menu, but a fraction second later his eyes bulged so much they looked like they had been stung by some angry bees. "The hell! This is friggin' extortionist price! Three million zenni for a bottle of beer? Are you freaking out of your mind? How can your business survive with this kind of prices?"

Fino started laughing out loud until she doubled up. Shalnark only grinned wickedly and crossed his arms as if defiantly.

"T, that's—" Fino managed to say staggeringly, "that's a price list…forged by Shal…" Then she started laughing again.

It took Phinks several seconds to let the information sink in and when it finally did, he growled at Shalnark and began cracking his knuckles.

"Shal, you little piece of…"

"W, w, wait! It's just a joke!" Shalnark put up his hands defensively.

"A damn sick joke! Now gimme the real menu!" He barked.

After a shot of his booze—that came with perfectly reasonable price tag—Phinks finally calmed down and leaned back in his chair in satisfaction. He swirled his mug of booze lazily as he enjoyed the pleasant bitter taste in his mouth.

"Are Nobu and Heen done?" Shalnark asked curiously.

"Nah. Still goin' about tryin' to rip each others' throats. Bets are going on. You wanna join, Shal?"

"What's the odds?"

"Dunno. Machi refused to bet. No fun." Phinks pouted.

Fino blinked; she was not sure if she was following the conversation.

"What does Machi have to do with the odds?"

"It's an unspoken rule that Machi always says her bet the last, 'coz she's got this frightening intuition that almost never fails her. Scary, I'm tellin' you." Phinks laughed. "Her bet usually indicates the odds. Or somethin' like that."

"Hm…" Fino was not sure if she really understood it.

"By the way, Fino, this maybe a long-time-ago issue, but I've been wonderin' why that Kuruta chose to live here with the brat?" Phinks asked the innkeeper's daughter after he gulped down half the content of the mug.

Fino gave a gentle smile and began explaining.

"You do realise that this town is very remote, right? This place often escapes the world's attention, it isn't even recorded in most of the maps available out there."

"No wonder we couldn't find where this damn town is in that bloody map we took." Phinks groused, mostly to himself.

Ignoring Phinks, Fino continued: "That is the reason why Kurapika chose this place to raise Meta. It's secluded and quiet, and so the risk of Meta being discovered as a Kuruta is slim."

"So, bottom line, it's all for the brat?"

"You can say so."

Perhaps it was because of the booze, but suddenly Phinks started reminiscing the old days before that stupid Hassan—or whatever damn hell the name of that demented genie was—put a schizophrenic curse on that chain-assassin and their Danchou. Those days in Yorkshin City when they had a wild cat-and-mouse game with the Kuruta was particularly memorable, since Phinks had not remembered having such a complex 'game' with anyone against the gang before. He had to say that he quite admired the chain-assassin in the sense that she (or _he_ at that time) was insanely persistent and—most importantly—smart. She (or _he_) even outsmarted Danchou at that time!

Who would have thought that the same chain-assassin would have a kid with their Danchou, of all extraordinary and supernatural—yes, some of the Spiders thought of this phenomenon as bordering supernatural, notably Nobunaga—things that could happen?

_How more ironic can life be?_ Phinks pondered as he downed the rest of his booze.

* * *

In the end, Kurapika rode Una alone. The children? They badly wanted to try flying with a winged unicorn and so at the moment they were on Bara's back, flying high in the sky but not too far from the ground to avoid the scorching sun. Kuroro? He was sitting behind the children in case they—being children—got careless and fell from Bara's back. Honestly Kuroro did not think that they would fall, and besides if they did fall both Kuroro and Kurapika were perfectly capable of catching them before they hit the ground; with Kurapika's Nen chain and Kuroro's teleportation skill. However, being a stubborn Mother Hen she was, Kurapika insisted that Kuroro stayed with the children because; although she was more than willing to guard the children in his stead, she adamantly refused riding the black unicorn.

_Kurapika, you don't like Una's father?_ Una asked her as they galloped across the desert of Ruthenia towards Ryuusei-gai.

"Well…Not exactly. More like he annoys me with his remarks and I rather stay away with people with smart-assed mouths. You know my temper, Una." Kurapika sighed.

_Una has to agree that he is rather…quirky._

"Really? What about the other unicorns?" Kurapika asked as she glanced at the big black dot flying on the clear sky.

_They are stiff and old-fashioned. They are also a prideful crowd. _

"Stuck-up, you mean." The Kuruta glowered as she recalled Bara's story as retold by Kuroro.

_Perhaps…_ Una said sheepishly. She was not used to bad-mouthing people or anyone else.

"What do you think of your father, then?"

_Una never holds an ounce of jaundice towards Una's father. Una's father is not a traitor. He is a noble unicorn. _The young unicorn said those words firmly without the slightest hesitation in her tone. Kurapika smiled at this and patted the unicorn's mane gently.

"You're proud of him."

…_The reason why Una risked going into Erin Continent; which is the home of my Unicorns tribe, is because Una was searching for Una's father._

Before Kurapika could respond to this new information divulged by the young Unicorn, the view of a vast city suddenly could be seen at the distant horizon. Even without narrowing her eyes to get a better outline of the city, Kurapika knew that it was Ryuusei-gai. In the first place, the city had no definite outline anyway. She could also see Bara flying at lower altitude as they neared the Meteor City.

When they finally reached the forest of Ryuusei-gai that lay beyond Ishtar's temple, Kurapika realised that the quality of the air suddenly changed. It was as if they had entered a place with radically different weather. While the air of the desert had been parching dry, the air at even the outskirt of the forest was fresh and humid as if it was a tropical forest. She had never noticed it before because the first time she had entered via the temple and the latest one had been via air by Gamayun the hybrid bird-woman creature.

Bara landed on the sandy ground and waited until Una caught up. When Una and Kurapika had reached them, Kurapika could see the children's eyes twinkling in excitement; even Bia's, and they positively looked like they were in sugar rush. Their faces were red with the exposure of the sunlight and also from the wind beating their faces as they flew at high speed. Kurapika turned to look at Kuroro; who had an indifferent face but she could see in his eyes how he was somehow awkward with the children.

"Had a hard-time babysitting?" Kurapika asked smugly and rather triumphantly.

"Not bad." Kuroro replied evenly.

"Right." She said disbelievingly and somewhat dismissively.

"Come on." Kuroro said, ignoring Kurapika's remark, as he directed Bara into the forest. "Don't dismount Una, and try to cover her with your Nen."

"Why?" With her Gyo, Kurapika could see that Kuroro had enveloped Bara in his Nen, as well as the children.

"The outskirt of the forest is usually heavily guarded. The guardians will attack just anyone who dares trespass the border except for the master of the temple, or whoever that bears his/her symbol."

"And what does my Nen have to do with it?" Kurapika asked confusedly.

"You have a piece of my Nen within you." He stated plainly.

"Ah." It clicked in her mind. "I see. Considering that now you're the master, is that it?"

"Oh, perhaps I should inform you that the guardians have been snakes during Ishtar's time. Now since the 'throne'" Kuroro said the word with slight distaste, "has been passed to me, and my familiar is Anansi, the guardians—"

"Don't tell me—" Kurapika interjected in mortification with her eyes widened to their maximum possible size.

"Spiders!" Meta exclaimed joyfully as he pointed at a few spiders of monstrous sizes dangling from a branch of a nearby tree.

Kurapika felt like fainting. Again. How could she not, when the trees around them were infested with spiders of the most mind-boggling, fear-inspiring, heart-stopping, (you name it) types and sizes? Not to mention that the grating clicking noises of the fangs of some of the abnormal spiders were getting to her. It was overwhelming for normal people, but for Kurapika? It was beyond.

Her eyes turned Scarlet at once, and her knuckles shook as she clenched her fists. Kuroro could feel her agitation, as her Nen within him stirred uneasily.

"Close your eyes, Kurapika. Dampen your five senses. Just concentrate on keeping your balance on Una's back." Kuroro instructed her.

She tried to do as she was told. It took a great deal of effort, because the hissing and clicking noises of the spiders were obnoxiously distracting. They were so loud and almost deafening. For a moment she worried for the children, but remembering that Meta had an equally abnormal fascination with spiders seemingly inherited from his father (curse you Kuroro), and Bia seemed to have no problem with spiders as well as she had witnessed back then in Tichit Walatta, Kurapika concluded that _she_ was the one having the most problem in the situation. The children were doing even better than she did.

How unnerving.

She poured her concentration on maintaining her Nen blanket around Una, as well as her balance on her back. Time seemed to stretch interminably, until Kuroro finally declared that they had reached the temple and that Kurapika could open her eyes. She felt this childish irritation towards Kuroro, but if she showed it she felt that she would be a sore loser. Kurapika decided to play it cool.

Indeed, when she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the massive stone wall of the temple of Ryuusei-gai. It was not exactly the part of the temple that she recognised, but Kuroro did not seem to be bothered about it. If anything, he had an amused expression as he stared at the ground near Bara's legs. Kurapika looked at the ground he was staring at, and spotted a small purplish black patch on the ground. It was as if a small pail of paint had been dumped there.

"What's with that?" She asked curiously.

"Remember the time when I told you about my first meeting with Anansi?"

Kurapika instantly grimaced as she recalled the story. It was a grotesque encounter that featured a helpless ten-years-old boy, a spider incarnation which would be decapitated and still _lived_, and a werewolf that would ultimately be poisoned to death by the said spider incarnation. So this was the exact spot of that incident?

"That black spot was where Anansi's poison had touched the soil."

"And the colour remains until now?" Kurapika asked incredulously.

_Because it was MY poison,_ said a third voice. It reverberated and echoed throughout the forest, and it boomed right behind Kurapika. It sounded so close to her. _Had it been Ishtar's poison, the effect would have been the same. The two of us are no ordinary supernatural creatures, after all._

"What—" Kurapika began, but was stopped by Kuroro.

"Kurapika. Do NOT turn around." Kuroro said sharply with a hand raised and in a 'stop' gesture.

The said Kuruta frowned bemusedly, but obediently did not turn around.

"Why? That's just Anansi, right?"

"It is him, but not in a very pleasing form."

Kurapika groaned in distress. She understood what he was implying: Anansi was in his 12-legged spider form. She could see Meta's eyes sparkling in utmost excitement and he was practically bouncing up and down on Bara's back. Bia's mouth was hanging open as she stared at the creature standing behind Kurapika with wide eyes yet rather bland expression.

"Why are you in that form?" Kuroro asked Anansi impatiently. Somehow, he rarely had the necessary patience when dealing with that ancient spider incarnation. Not that he bothered pondering over it, though.

_I thought this will be more dramatic,_ the spider laughed, but it sounded like metallic cackling. Kurapika shuddered as the sound reached her ears. She felt like scratching her ears in irritation.

"It's annoying." Kuroro said flatly. "Change back."

_Aw…And I thought you love spiders. So mean… Kids, don't be a mean person like your daddy there, okay?_

"Anansi." Kuroro infused a threatening tone in his voice.

_And don't be a bully like him. Fine, fine, I'm turning into my humanoid form._ The air trembled as Kurapika felt a rush of magic or the likes from behind her. "Sheesh, you are always no fun."

"WOOOOW! That's cool!" Meta exclaimed. "Anansi, that's really cool!"

"You son is much more entertaining to play with." Anansi added as he sauntered towards the black unicorn. "Hey, Kurapika. Did I frighten you?" He asked her fleetingly as he passed Una and her rider.

"More like I would have mutilated you if I have seen your spider form." Kurapika said gelidly.

"Scaa~~ry." Anansi laughed and plucked Meta from Bara's back.

_Anansi of Tichit Walatta? Fancy seeing you here. What's your connection with this lad?_ Bara asked as he scrutinised the dark-skinned lanky man; who was being given a bone-crushing hug by the four-years old in his arms.

"Hm? You are Bara the demonic renegade, aren't you? That should be my line, I believe. But anyway, to answer your question, Kuroro is my son—"

"I told you to stop sprouting nonsense, Anansi." Kuroro sent him a death glare that most unfortunately did little to silence the Tichit Walatta native.

"…who hates his (foster) father's guts with all his heart. Poor me…" Anansi said dramatically.

_Little wonder, considering your antics…_ Bara said unsympathetically.

"Heeeee? So you're my grandpa? Why didn't you tell me before, Anansi?" Meta said jubilantly. "I have a grandpa!"

Both Kurapika and Kuroro rolled their eyes in exasperation. They might not share some telepathic skill or something along that line, but at that moment they shared the same thought:

_I'll have to straighten things up with Meta about some issues…_

"So, why are you here, Bara?"

_I met this lad on one occasion, then found out that they travelled with my long-lost daughter. So I decided to lend a hand to them._

"Ah, so Una is your daughter? My, my, the world is surely small." Anansi sighed, and then turned to Kuroro. "By the way—"

"KURORO! YOU ARE LATE!" A witch-like voice boomed, drowning Anansi's voice easily.

All heads turned towards the source of the voice, and saw a short, wrinkly old woman walking towards them briskly with her hunched back bobbing up and down energetically (for someone her age, that is). Hatsubaba approached the group with a grand scowl on her face, causing her wrinkles to crease even deeper than usual. When she noticed his entourage (slightly belatedly), however, her scowl receded slightly but her eyebrows shot up so high they almost disappeared among her wrinkles on her forehead.

"I see that you have brought the whole gang with you." She stated.

Kuroro simply shrugged and offered no explanation on the matter. Hatsubaba was not bothered by that, either. If anything, she seemed rather happy to see Meta again. Meta himself was chanting "Grandma! Grandma!" happily in Anansi's arms when he saw Hatsubaba coming; causing Kuroro and Kurapika to raise their eyebrows and exchange quizzical looks.

"Well then, you know what you have to do. I'll take care of them while you attend to your _duty_." Hatsubaba purposefully stressed the word 'duty' because she knew that it irritated Kuroro. She was just in the mood of teasing the boy (yes, he would always be 'the boy' for her, regardless his age)

Kuroro; being Kuroro Lucifer, merely responded coolly with a "Hm," before dismounting Bara. He gave the black unicorn an appreciative pat on his flank, silently giving his thanks for his help. Bara responded with a quiet neigh. He looked at Kurapika, and their eyes met briefly before Kuroro turned and began walking away, back into the depth of the forest. It was impossible for any onlookers to discern whether there was any message passed between those interlocking gazes, or whether it was merely a gesture without any purpose.

"Aa~lright. Here we go," Anansi transferred Meta to Hatsubaba's arms. "I'll be off to do my job, as well."

"Where are you two going to?" Meta asked with complainingly.

"Your daddy has to go for this 'meeting'," Anansi made the inverted-coma gesture—which Meta did not understand but Kurapika got the implication—"and I have to go accompany him, ok? You be a good boy, Meta."

"But can't we just go together, like before?" Meta said again with an unhappy pout.

"Hush, Meta. It's a job, not a picnic." Kurapika reprimanded him lightly. "Let's get going."

Inwardly, Kurapika simply did not wish to stay in that spiders-infested forest any longer. Meta sulked grandly but did not make anymore noises. He only whispered a "Bye bye," to the retreating figure of his father and 'grandpa'—and the said 'grandpa' waved dramatically back at him—as he was being carried away by Hatsubaba towards the stone building of the temple.

Following Hatsubaba's lead, both unicorns walked towards the obscured gate of the temple.

* * *

"You are in an unusually high spirit." Kuroro commented as they walked towards the heart of the forest. Anansi was currently the one leading the way.

"Mmhm. Just happy and all." Anansi nodded as he plucked a lonely leaf from nearby branch and twirled it with his fingers absentmindedly.

"No particular reason?"

It was not as if Kuroro was interested in Anansi's mood. He knew that the man was incorrigibly unpredictable and just plain weird, but this time round his happiness was practically spilling as if he was a barrel that had contained more than it could hold. While it did no harm, Kuroro was not very…well…he just thought of it as simply too odd. Anansi in his normal mode was already odd in most human's eyes, but this time his happiness was even more peculiar than ever.

And Kuroro had the feeling that it had something to do with him—or rather him and his 'entourage'.

"It's a good day. Really, _really_ good day." Anansi said without bothering to elaborate.

To say the truth, Anansi was simply happy that everything was going on smoothly, even things concerning Kuroro and his relationship with Kurapika and Meta (he was not sure about Bia, though. In the first place, he did not even _know_ who that pretty little white-haired girl was). If he was to tell Kuroro this out loud, the Spider Head might decide to maul him. That would ruin his day. No, no, that would not do. Kuroro would have to content himself with whatever was given to him, explanation or not.

"You are being creepy." Yes, that was the best word to describe Anansi's behaviour. Downright creepy. Well, although admittedly it was not the kind of disturbing creepiness that a certain ex-Spider always exuded all the time.

"I'll take that as your way of showing your affection to me." Anansi said in a sing-song manner.

_Which part of it is affectionate?_ He thought as he shook his head. He gave up trying to rationalise the spider incarnation's antics.

"Anyway, I did tell you that you have to come here to 'convince' those brutes residing in this forest that you're now the boss. You see, they are all aware that there's a change in the so-called ruling party. Don't ask me how. That's just how things are with _us_," Anansi was referring to mythical creatures and the likes, "news travel really fast among us. Neat, eh?"

Kuroro merely shrugged.

"During Ishtar's time, she didn't need to beat the living crap out of them, but for you it's a different case. Not that I'm saying that you're weak, but you are essentially a _human_. That makes a whole lot difference for us."

"So you are saying that I have to beat them into submission?" Kuroro was not too thrilled with that idea. It lacked his preferred sophistication.

"Hmm… In a way, I suppose. It's a battle, yes, but there will be rules. To be frank, most of the creatures here don't really bother about the change in power, but some really take it into consideration." Anansi put a grim expression.

"You said 'some'. How many of them?" Kuroro asked; his gait as easy as ever although he was not disturbed about the news that some creatures did not approve of him. He did not give a damn, to be honest.

"Well, actually there's only one who hasn't approved of you until she has tested you."

"_She_?" Kuroro looked at Anansi with a raised eyebrow.

"That lady over there." Anansi gestured with a nod of his chin towards the said direction.

Kuroro turned to look at the person Anansi was pointing at. He slowed down his pace noticeably until he came to a stop. He looked at the said lady with steady eyes, but there was a hint of nostalgia in those abysmal obsidian eyes. He had always wanted to see her in person, but had never had the chance to do so. The time when he saw her true form in the visitation to his past via Phoenix's magic (or whatever it was) did not count.

The Lady of the Lake stood hovering above the surface of the tranquil lake. It was the lake that had once saved his life from death by poisoning. In front of it was the small earthen mound that was the humble grave of Ishtar. It simply served as a memoir, as there was nothing but dirt and soil tainted by Ishtar's lethal poison that had been spilled during her last battle with Kuroro and Kurapika. The Lady; Morgan le Fay, had a very serene expression and she gazed at Kuroro with tender motherly look.

Kuroro fleetingly recalled that the Lady had referred to him as Ishtar's Lancelot. She had talked about him with such gentle words that Kuroro believed that she favoured him in one way or another. As such, it was rather baffling that she was the one who had not approved of him yet, of all people—or rather, creatures.

Sensing this question, the Lady smiled thinly at him. However, she did not confront him directly over that matter.

_Hello, Kuroro Lucifer. It's been a while since the last time we met,_ she greeted him with soft voice that sounded like the gentle lapping of water.

"I believe it is not accurate to say that we have _met_ before. This is my first time seeing you in your human form." Kuroro corrected her with equally calm tone.

_True. But I know that you could sense my presence inside the lake. I noticed it when the first time you dived into my lake,_ the Lady chuckled lightly.

"More like getting dumped into the lake by Ishtar." Anansi snickered rather gleefully. Kuroro ignored him.

"I could sense you, but could not see you. It's a pleasure that I finally can see you in this form." Kuroro said truthfully.

The Lady's smile turned wistful.

_So much like Lancelot, you really are…_She whispered, her voice like the rippling of water.

Kuroro did not know who Lancelot was, though he had a general idea that he was somewhat like her foster son or the like. In a way, the Lady and Lancelot were just like Ishtar and Kuroro. However, Kuroro was not interested in that.

"So," Kuroro said with firm voice, "I have heard that you have not approved of me succeeding Ishtar's role. Do you mind elaborating on your reasoning?"

_Straight to the point, like a released arrow._ The Lady gave an amused smile. _Well, to answer to that question, I will have to tell you first that I have served as Lady Medusa's_—Ishtar's other name—_eyes in this forest since the beginning. I serve as the guardian of this forest, she as the guardian of that city over the wall of the temple._

"So that's how it is," Kuroro mused out loud, covering his mouth with one hand as per his habit when he was getting deep in thought.

_We are each other's counsel, _she continued,_ and our relation was something that I hold precious even after her death. I know most intimately her perseverance in keeping the balance between this two conjoined worlds. As such, after her death and therefore the passing of her throne to her successor, I have to make sure personally that the heir indeed is worthy of the position._

"So, in other words, you are unsure of my competency to take up Ishtar's role and the responsibilities that come with it." Kuroro concluded.

_Put in a crude manner, yes._

"And now you are going to test me to see the accuracy of your doubts." Kuroro honestly did not mind that. It was interesting, to say the least. "How?"

_I am not proficient in battles, so I will leave the battling to them,_ the Lady said.

As if answering to an unspoken summon, the bushes around the clearing where the lake resided shook. Several beasts appeared; werewolves, some odd looking lizards, some mutant-like insects or the likes, etc. etc. Kuroro eyed them evenly, quickly analysing their battle capability as much as he could in the shortest moment possible. He had heard tales about some of them, but he found himself not recognising some of the creatures. It seemed as though they had evolved during their stay in that forest of Ryuusei-gai.

"Anansi said there will be rules. Set by you, I presume?"

_Yes. First, you are not allowed to seek for Lord Anansi's aid. I acknowledge his capability. _

Kuroro fought the urge to roll his eyes upon hearing the word 'Lord' attached with Anansi's name.

_Second, you are allowed to use the Solomon Ring. In fact, I wish to see if you can handle that ring of abomination sufficiently or not. It is a dangerous artefact. _

"Question!" Anansi called out as he raised a hand. "Is killing allowed?"

The Lady paused as she considered Anansi's question. The forests had been swarming with too many of those beasts lately. Perhaps some cleaning up would be in order.

_It is allowed,_ she answered, and finally nodded her head as if finalising her words. _That is all._

Kuroro raised his eyebrows quizzically.

"That is all?"

_Yes. We will commence the test now._

Responding to the Lady of the Lake's words, the beasts crouched into their battle stance. Some of them even had already lunged towards Kuroro. Kuroro dodged one—the one that looked like some distorted mutant-insect—and kicked it in the midriff, sending it flying to the other side of the clearing. More beasts were coming at him. Kuroro flexed his fingers and arms.

The werewolf aimed its claw at Kuroro's head, intending to snap it from his neck. Unfortunately, Kuroro swiped away that muscular arm with one smooth manoeuvre of his arm and with more manipulation of his own arms, Kuroro broke the werewolf's arm clean. He was a counter-attack type, after all.

The werewolf gave a deafening howl of agony. Some of the beasts took one uncertain step back. Anansi sat on top of a tall tree branch, clear from the on-going battle down there while gaining a nice view of the whole thing. Morgan le Fay levitated above the water surface of her lake with impassive expression; unfazed by the abuse dealt to the werewolf.

_No Anansi's help, Solomon Ring and killing allowed,_ Kuroro rehearsed the rules silently. From his position, Anansi noticed—and thus was amused to know that this would be a very interesting battle—how Kuroro had broken into a deadly yet beautiful thin smile. With a hardly noticeable flick of his wrist, Kuroro conjured his Skill Hunter nen book.

_How hard can this be?_

* * *

_**Author's Note**__: I know, I know. In the last part Kuroro sounds more like a homicidal maniac than anything else. But I imagine him as someone who thrives in battle. Besides, killing is allowed. Just how hard can it be for someone like Kuroro Lucifer? XD_

_I don't know if the part where Kuroro hugs Kurapika and teases her is OOC. Is it? I really contemplated on deleting that part, but I just feel that I have to put that part there coz otherwise it'll be too dry between them. I don't intend it to be a romantic scene, though. _

_Now, who can remember the name of the genie who put a binding curse on Kurapika and Kuruta at the beginning of the story without referring to the 1001 Night fic? Hehehehe… _

_Sorry, Una, but Bara's story is more interesting than yours. So let's put it from his point of view *horse-kicked*_

_**Next:**__ Kuroro was put to a test to prove his competence. How would it turn out? Meanwhile, how would Kurapika and the rest spent their time in Ryuusei-gai until Kuroro was done with his 'duty'?_


	26. Chapter 24: Settle

_**Disclaimer: **__Still not mine._

_**Ps: **__Again, I'm too lazy to check for invisible-unless-you-squint mistakes, so pardon me for minor errors =P_

_**Story so far:**__ Kuroro was being test for his competency in taking Ishtar's seat in Ryuusei-gai. Would it be as easy as he had predicted? Meanwhile, Kurapika and the others were taking their time walking around Ryuusei-gai. Perhaps they; and especially Kurapika, would discover something as they spent their time with that broken city?_

* * *

**Chapter 24**

_**SETTLE**_

* * *

They had reached Ryuusei-gai at afternoon, and the sun was blazing hot; hovering above the poverty-stricken city like an unforgiving deity. The atmosphere in the city had not changed much since Kurapika visited the city years ago. The last time she came to Ryuusei-gai in search of Meta, she had not gone to the city.

She still saw the same activities 'bustling' in the city as per normal in Ryuusei-gai term. Adults chasing after children to rob them, children ganging up to beat the crap out of some (deserving) adults, men trying to rip each other's throats to get their hands on a certain items they happened to find at the same time—and the list went on. It was unsettling to her, but Kurapika knew better than to meddle with the laws of that supposedly non-existent city. She had absolutely no right to judge that city, no matter how ugly it was.

Besides, she was more concerned to see how Meta and Bia seemed to be so engrossed in inspecting every nook and cranny of the city. Granted that both of them had nothing valuable on them that would guarantee them to be the target of any thugs from the city, and their outfits were plain enough not to attract attention, but Kurapika was still at edge.

"You worry too much, Kurapika. You'll grow grey hair before you know it, if you continue like that."

The muscle of Kurapika's cheek twitched when she heard that coming from Hatsubaba. She suspected that Hatsubaba had her own share of raising Kuroro more than Kurapika had initially thought.

"Let them explore. If you are too overprotective of them, they won't grow strong," Hatsubaba continued as she hobbled next to Kurapika. Despite her seemingly vulnerable appearance, Kurapika knew better that the old woman was capable of beating the living daylight out of a grown-up man.

"…That's exactly why I let them be right now." Kurapika said flatly, and there was a very faint tone of displeasure in her voice.

"But you're still tailing them like you don't trust them." The old woman sneered.

"I'm just being prudent." Kurapika countered icily.

Hatsubaba snorted somewhat mockingly, but said nothing further. However, the silence only lasted for just a short moment.

"I'm surprised that Kuroro actually let that mute little girl tag along. I honestly thought he'd dump her somewhere, despite your protest."

Kurapika was silent for a while, before she admitted: "I'm surprised myself. I hadn't expected him to relent that easily."

"So things do change eventually. Though I doubt that the boy notice this change." Hatsubaba let out her characteristic witch-like laugh. "From what you told me, she seems to be suffering from aphasia due to mental trauma, coupled with memory loss. It'll be up to the three of you to heal her."

"The _three_ of us?" Kurapika cringed. "I doubt that Kuroro will pitch in. He told me himself that he doesn't care about her as much. I don't think he'll go out of his way to help Bia."

The Elder grinned almost wickedly at Kurapika, causing the latter to shudder slightly. "You wanna bet?"

Kurapika sighed.

"…I'll pass."

* * *

The ground shook violently as three bulky creatures hit the ground hard. The three of them were not intact anymore, and they were positively dead. The ground had turned soft due to all the blood spilled. Despite the carnage in that place, one person remained standing; perfectly intact and largely unscathed except for some small insignificant scratches, with his outfit still immaculately clean. It was a rather unnerving scene.

Kuroro flicked his wrist as he took out his needle-like weapons out and flung them with deadly accuracy to his approaching opponents. Some struck the incoming 'monsters' right through their heads—puncturing the brains—some pierced through the vulnerable eyes, some were embedded on the creatures' muscular necks.

He looked around calmly. The number of the incoming attackers had hardly decreased, and he was going to run short of his weapons soon if things continued at this rate. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that an insect-like creature had bloated its throat and; expectedly, the next moment it vomited a swarm of small bugs that flew in frenzy to his direction.

A red leather-bound book appeared on his open palm and the pages turned by themselves until they stopped at a certain page. Kuroro tilted his head backwards slightly as he inhaled. When the swarm of insects were close enough that their buzzes almost deafened him, he opened his mouth and breathed fire as if he was a dragon. The bugs were instantly burned into crisps and the mother insect was turned into a lump of unrecognisable charcoal. It was not a skill that he was particularly fond of, as it made him coughed out puffs of smokes like some broken engine.

Ferocious hisses of snakes grabbed his attention. A three-headed snake towered over him with their jaws open hungrily. He looked at them with composed face. Kuroro heard the low growl of another creature behind him. The three heads suddenly squirted out darts of lethal poisons towards him. Kuroro's Skill Hunter books flipped its own pages and stopped at another particular page. The next moment, Kuroro disappeared and consequently those poisons landed on the unfortunate creature—an odd mix between goat and lion—which had lunged at Kuroro just a moment age before he teleported somewhere else.

Anansi watched the whole scene from the branch where he had perched himself before the battle began.

"Sheesh, he's literally sweeping the floor with them." He combed his pale platinum-gold hair with his sinewy fingers. It was really too easy.

Suddenly, he noticed something. He turned his attention to the Lady of the Lake; who had been watching the carnage with impassive face. She still had the expressionless face, but he did not miss the slight frown on her seemingly sculpted visage. She suddenly raised a pale glittery hand, and from her open palm she produced something that looked forebodingly like a water spear. She did not even flick her wrist or twitch her fingers when the spear suddenly flew from above her palm towards Kuroro's head.

Only by his pure reflex that Kuroro managed to dodge that deadly attack. He spun around and regarded Morgan le Fay with something akin to amusement. Anansi slapped his forehead in exasperation but still he chuckled—trust Kuroro to be amused when somebody had tried to assassinate him.

"Joining the fray now?" Kuroro asked suavely as he dodged the claws of a bear-like creature.

His mannerism caused the Lady to raise a curious eyebrow.

_What have you noticed?_ She questioned him.

"That you didn't say that there's only one round of battle. There is a possibility that there will be a second round, most likely where you'll decide to test me yourself." Kuroro shrugged.

_Very good. I expect no less from you, Kuroro Lucifer_. _However, I do have one question for you. Why have you not used the Solomon Ring?_

Kuroro dodged the snapping jaw of a jaguar-like creature before breaking its neck with one swift and firm twist of his arms that had been wrapped around the muscular neck. He then turned to answer the Lady.

"I prefer to fight with my own skills and powers. I may be the Solomon Ring's rightful master right now, but I do not consider it as an extension of my skill. It is merely an additional power granted to me. I don't fancy using something that I do not acquire myself."

Anansi; who overheard everything from above there on the tree branch, rolled his eyes.

_I do not know whether to think of you as noble or arrogant,_ The Lady said softly.

"Think whatever you wish to think. I don't care about it." Kuroro said as he killed yet another creature.

_I wish to see you using that Solomon Ring, Kuroro Lucifer. Show me how much you are the master of that abominable item,_ the Lady said as she waved her arm gently.

The movement was graceful but it was not purposeless. With a low hum, a batch of water spears appeared around the Lady of the Lake. They hovered around her in almost a docile manner while waiting for their cue to fly towards Kuroro in attempt to impale him. Kuroro regarded those water spears with even eyes and not the slightest hint of worry. It was obvious that she was threatening him so that he used the demonic artefact.

"Why do you insist?" He asked, truly curious.

_The Solomon Ring hosts 72 powerful demons, and it can still exert control over other minor, lowly demons. The extent in which you can control that Ring shows how powerful you are; both physically and mentally, in terms of your body and your soul. _

"And to what extent do you wish to see my control over this Ring?"

The Lady of the Lake eyed him critically. Anansi held his breath as he waited for the Lady's response.

_Milady Medusa could summon all 72 demons in one shot and still she prevailed,_ The Lady said almost too softly.

Kuroro did notice that she did not specifically mention her requirement of his display of control over the Ring.

"My Lady, you don't mean to make him summon all 72 demons, I hope!" Ananasi left his post and landed on the bank of the lake. His face showed an expression of contained fury and fear.

Kuroro raised an eyebrow as he noticed those two emotions playing on Anansi's face quite obviously. It was uncanny to see him with those two particular emotions.

_I did not say so,_ The Lady said gently.

"Oh, but you did imply so, didn't you? I object!"

"Why?" Kuroro asked, though he knew the answer.

Anansi looked at him with an expression of anguish and reluctance.

"Because I'm essentially a human, right?" Kuroro answered his own question. "Therefore it is close to impossible to exert full control over 72 demons. I am not a fool, Anansi." Kuroro turned to the Lady and challenged her: "And so now you know that I am unable to control all 72 demons if I am to summon them in one shot. Are you going to deem me as unworthy then?"

The Lady looked at Kuroro with soft eyes. He truly reminded her of her dear Lancelot, though admittedly Lancelot was not as arrogant as this boy was.

_The Solomon Ring is not proof of the master of this place. Show me your capability, that is all I ask of you,_ she answered, her voice like gentle ripples of calm water.

"Then you should have simply told me so since the beginning." Kuroro raised up his hand that wore the cursed Ring.

"Kuroro, don't. You haven't had any rest since Valhalla. You summoned two demons back then, didn't you?" Anansi intercepted before Kuroro could utilise the Ring.

"I had my rest." Kuroro said dismissively. For him, riding on Bara was enough a rest for his body. At least all he did was to sit down while keeping an eye on two overly excited children.

Kuroro did not even bother asking him how he knew about the Valhalla incident. Knowing Anansi, he would only answer with an 'I have my own ways with things'. To be frank, though, it kind of tick him off that Anansi seemed to watch him wherever he went and whatever he did. Kuroro made a mental note to give Anansi a piece of his mind regarding that issue later.

"Besides, I am curious to see how many demons I can summon in one succession." Kuroro continued, and the ring glowed in its unearthly manner.

"Kuroro, you are insane!"

The said young man turned to smirk at the spider incarnation.

"You and Ishtar brought me up," he merely stated.

Under normal circumstances, Anansi perhaps would have died out of pure happiness since Kuroro had just admitted that he was his parent (in Anansi's interpretation), but this was no time to feel touched. The Solomon Ring glowed brighter; it was almost a shade of hellish fire. Kuroro's face was tinged red from the glow, and he himself was looking at the Lady of the Lake straight in her eyes. There was anticipation in her glassy eyes.

Kuroro raised the Ring with the gem facing the Lady.

"_Lemegeton: Ars Goetia._"

* * *

They had reached the Scavenger's Ground, and both the blonde boy and the white-haired girl had turned everything into a fantasized treasure-hunting expedition. Kurapika walked slowly at distance while watching her footing, and she was slightly envious of Hatsubaba who was walking as if it was flat ground. Well, the wizened old woman had walked the terrain countless time in her lifetime, so it was just natural.

At first Kurapika had been reluctant to go to the Scavenger's Ground, but not only that the children had insisted and Hatsubaba had told her to let them explore (again), Kurapika herself felt compelled to get a taste on how it would feel to stand above that mountain of trashes and left-over.

Standing there, Kurapika could not help but to think of the Genei Ryodan.

_Genei Ryodan, the Phantom Troupe. They are people of the world; people of nowhere and people of everywhere. There is nothing that can restrict them, no rule that can bend them, because they came from Ryuusei-gai; a city that is not supposed to exist, along with its citizens. They do not exist politically therefore legal laws do not apply to them. _

Kurapika mused over that thought silently and solemnly as she scanned the surrounding almost warily. Here she was standing on one of the highest points in the Scavenger's Ground, so that she would have the vantage view of the whole ground, and probably the city as well. Bathed in the orange tint of late afternoon sun, the city gave a very disheartening impression to her. It was so run-down, so pitiful, so impoverished—so lawless.

She could hear the excited noises that Meta was giving off in his exploration with Bia; them being oblivious of the truth of the place. How those noises were a complete contrast with the ground. Perhaps for the natives of the place, those noises would be like an insult.

The city looked so fragile and weak, with no strong fortress to surround it except for nature. At the same time, it had nothing to shelter itself from nature's harsh attacks. Yet, exactly because of its fragility and nature's unforgiving behaviour, the people grew strong—stronger than average. The lawless-ness, however, desensitised its citizen except for the notion that they were one big family when they were _out_ _there_, in the outside world.

Kurapika wondered vaguely if the Genei Ryodan did consider themselves one big family or not. Not to mention that some of the members were not natives of Ryuusei-gai.

* * *

"So what do you think of them?"

Heen turned to look straight into Fino's big hazel brown eyes. They were shining with, undoubtedly, genuine curiosity and kindness. Fino was patching him up after the 'showdown' between Heen and Nobunaga, while Shalnark was tending to Nobunaga—who was swearing that the next time would not be a draw. Yes, it ended up with a draw, but a good portion of the forest where they fought had been flat-out destroyed and they were far from being unscathed. Fino could imagine Kurapika burning in fury when she came back and discovered that the forest had been decimated by Nobunaga. She had heard enough tales from Shalnark about how Kurapika and Nobunaga used to be after each other's throats in the past.

"They are interesting, but ultimately crazy. However," he smiled at her knowingly, "I can ask you the same. What do you think of them? You are a normal person. I can't help but to keep asking myself how a sweet girl such as you came to be associated with this crazy bunch of people."

Fino laughed and slapped his bandaged arm lightly just after she had finished clipping the bandage. Heen winced at this but kept quiet.

"It's a looo~~ng story, but since you are a new member of this interesting group, maybe I'll tell you."

And so Fino told him about how she first met Kuroro and Kurapika roughly eight years ago, and how things had gone since then. However, she did not go into details especially since she knew that certain things were considered as delicate issues. A few years back she would have vomit everything out with vigour, but she was not a teenager anymore. She was a mature young lady right now (who was being pressed by her parents to quickly get married and have children).

"Hm…How unusual." Heen hummed as he rested his chin on his palm.

"What is?" Fino asked fleetingly as she packed the bandages back to the first-aid kit.

"You and Shalnark. Kurapika and Lucifer. I wouldn't have thought that natives of Ryuusei-gai like them could form such strong bonds with 'outsiders'." Something clicked in Heen's mind. "You get what I mean, don't you? I mean, them coming from Ryuusei-gai…"

"Oh, I know." Fino giggled while waving her hand. "But then, does it matter? Ryuusei-gai or not, they are still humans. Humans always live in interactions with fellow humans. No humans are alone in this world."

"Except the insane ones." Heen added with a grin.

Fino laughed at this. She sat down behind the counter and leaned forward with her arms crossed. She looked at the Spiders who were bickering in the dining hall, although some others seemed to be content with being silent observers without taking part in the merriment. They did take care not to inflict any damages on the inn, of course. Fino's eyes were soft as she observed them.

"Don't worry, you'll be part of this strange family sooner than you thought." Fino suddenly said to Heen, and turned to him as she added with a wide smile: "Ryuusei-gai natives or not."

Heen chuckled as he lowered his head, a content smile playing on his dark-skinned face. He looked at his bandaged arms, while listening to the words of the Spiders; talking about trivial, insignificant gossips. Absentmindedly he recalled that the only family members he had was Bia, but she had forgotten him. Abandoned him, unintentionally as it was. She was now part of Kurapika's family.

Then again…

"Yo, Heen, isn't it? Nobu just said you're good!" Phinks declared suddenly. Nobunaga himself suddenly turned lobster red at this.

If the Spiders were really one big family, then Kuroro Lucifer would be the 'father' of the family. One way or another, he could still be connected with Bia through Lucifer. He could still try to link back to her. Perhaps she would remember. One could hope, couldn't he?

"Friggin' shut up, Phinks! I'm gonna cut you into cubes of flesh—!" Swords unsheathed and bare hands braced, the two of them started wrestling again and another session of betting ensued.

The smile on Heen's face grew. Anyways and besides, he really liked this family.

* * *

Kurapika turned her head abruptly in the direction of the temple. She eyed the forest beyond the temple as best as she could—since the temple itself obscured most of the forest from view—and she saw a red glow somewhere in the forest; most probably in the heart of the forest. What made her turn was the sudden twist inside her; Kuroro's Nen. Something happened to him; that much was obvious.

"What's wrong?" Hatsubaba questioned her as she kicked a piece of rusty metal aside.

"The Solomon Ring…I think." Kurapika answered hesitantly. She did not know for sure, it was just an intuition.

Hatsubaba gave a low cackling laugh. She knew that it was simply Kurapika's intuition, but still she had to say inwardly that women intuition was really a scary thing. Hatsubaba said nothing as she knew that Kurapika was highly likely to be correct. Instead, she kept her eyes on Meta.

Meta was standing rigidly, and he was looking to the direction of the forest beyond the temple as well. There was a curios expression on his innocent face, as well as a deep frown. Bia tugged at his sleeves, seemingly asking him of what was bothering him.

"Whispers. I hear whispers…" Meta answered her without averting his eyes from that direction.

Bia cocked her head sideways, as if asking him "What whispers?" Meta closed his eyes so that he could concentrate on those whispers. The more he tried to identify those whispered words, the more he could not discern the words. More voices came and overlapped with each other, creating a cacophony of whispers that sounded like a deafening buzz. Those voices were low and high-pitched, hoarse and smooth, breezy and booming—it was everything.

Meta was dizzied by those voices. He tried blocking those noises by covering his ears, but still those voices reached his mind. Meta squatted down in distress and began crying. On impulse, Bia hugged Meta as she thought he needed comforting. Now it was a given that Bia constantly projected her Nen in the form imperceptible electromagnetic field. It acted as passive field that did not affect anything in its range but transmit information to her; that was how she learned from her environment. When she hugged Meta, she involuntarily received the information—or rather, data extracted from his electrons from his brains—of his thoughts. Terrified, she let go of him as if she had been electrocuted. Bia's expressionless face broke into that of a fearful one.

As best as her weak legs could, Bia ran to Kurapika. She tugged at her hands hard to gain her attention. Kurapika had hardly any time to question her when suddenly the little white-haired girl pulled her towards Meta. Seeing Meta's vulnerable position, Kurapika forgot all kinds of questions and rushed to him. Hatsubaba merely observed everything.

"What's wrong?" She asked Meta, but he could not answer her. He was trembling as if he was cold. Kurapika repeated her question but he stayed silent.

Bia then grabbed Kurapika's wrist and started writing on her palm. It was a method that Lucian had once taught her when he was (forcedly) charged with baby-sitting duty back then. She wrote 'scary', 'voices', and 'forest' on Kurapika's palm, and Kurapika knew what had happened.

Meta could hear the voices of the demons of the Solomon Ring when they were being summoned.

Kurapika scooped Meta in her arms and walked towards one of the stone slabs nearby; it seemed like a fallen stone pillar or something the likes. She sat Meta down there and held him by his upper-arms.

"Meta, concentrate on other things. Look at this stone, concentrate on it." Kurapika tried instructing him.

With feeble nod, Meta did as he was told. He looked at the stone beneath him, and after a while he caught a vibe off it. There was a strong memory lingering from that stone, and with his innate empathic ability he could feel it. As he concentrated on that faint trace of memory from the stone pillar, Meta leaned to Kurapika's arms. Kurapika herself sat down by his side and embraced his small shoulders with one arm.

Bia then sat in front of Meta with her passive electromagnetic field still activated. At first she sat while hugging her knees, but after a while she felt compelled to hold Meta's hands, and so she did. The moment the flesh contact was made, somehow Bia involuntarily projected the fragments of memories from the stone pillar they were sitting that Meta was focusing on.

Kurapika looked up as she saw something appearing. Her eyes widened as she saw a young boy sitting on the edge of the stone pillar somewhere near them, with his back towards them. The young boy was clad in black, and his black hair swayed as if gentle breezed caressed it. In reality, there was no wind at the moment. Kurapika had not sensed the boy's presence. It was as if he had just miraculously appeared out of thin air. Then again, as Kurapika narrowed her eyes and scrutinised the boy, she noticed that the boy was not solid. His body was rather transparent.

From her position, she could only see that he was looking down on something he had in his hands. A moment later, another image appeared. It was a tall girl wearing something that reminded Kurapika of school uniform. Her dirty-blonde hair and long skirt also swayed gently, caressed by invisible breeze. Her mouths opened, but no sound came. It was like watching a silent movie.

The Kuruta looked on at the scene playing before her. She knew the girl in uniform. Her face was younger, but the characteristic physical trait of her face was unmistakable. It was Pakunoda in her younger days.

The girl said several words to the black-haired boy. The boy simply looked up and held up a VCR for the tall girl to see. After a while, the boy threw the VCR down to the mountains of trash below. It felt like eternity before the VCR finally crashed down there, its parts scattering everywhere.

Kurapika knew that VCR; the one that contained the message from the mafia asking for elite soldiers from Ryuusei-gai; the present-day Genei Ryodan. Kuroro changed everything back then, and in his defiance against the mafia he recruited those 'soldiers' as his Spiders.

However, Kurapika was not paying attention to either the VCR or the black-haired boy; who undoubtedly was Kuroro Lucifer in his teenage days. Instead, Kurapika focused on the holograph of memories of Pakunoda. Kurapika remembered the time in the blimp in Yorkshin City when she made a deal with Pakunoda for hostages exchange; Kuroro Lucifer for Gon and Killua. She remembered how Senritsu had pointed out that particular Spider's humanity; on how she was willing to go through such risk for the sake of one man.

She had respected Pakunoda back then. When she felt through her Nen that her Judgement Chain had killed her, Kurapika had somehow anticipated it—she knew that Pakunoda was far too loyal to the Spiders and her Danchou that she would gladly throw away her life for it. At the same time, she felt a pang of regret, almost guilt, for causing her death.

Kurapika then knew that she would never be able to deal death to anyone so easily. It was just not in her nature, and she did not wish to get used to it.

Suddenly, the black-haired boy disappeared and so did the young Pakunoda. Instead, the Pakunoda that Kurapika knew well; the one with short cropped hair and black suit, stood before her. Apparently, Meta had shifted his concentration from the stone pillar to Kurapika's memories of Pakunoda; it was stronger than the weak fragments from the stone pillar.

The slightly transparent Pakunoda looked at her with blank eyes; her expression undecipherable. Kurapika was genuinely shocked to see that Pakunoda. That projection of Pakunoda wavered, as if she was projected from a television screen that was going static.

"Mom…" Meta's voice was dry and muffled, and it sounded terribly like one on the verge of crying. "Mom…" He repeated.

"Yes, Meta?" Kurapika answered without averting her eyes from Pakunoda's image.

"Why...did you kill her?"

* * *

Night had come, and the wind was chilly. The city was dead, there was hardly a single soul wandering in the streets below there. She was standing on the top of the building that housed Kuroro's quarter. She was still thinking about the issue about Pakunoda; she could not shake it off her mind. Above all, however, she knew that it was the fact that Meta knew that she had murdered Pakunoda that shook her to the core.

Granted that Meta was far more intelligent than the children his age because he had been immersed among books since his infancy due to Kurapika's influence, and also because he had others like Leorio, Killua, Gon, Lucian, and Fino who home-tutored him; teaching him things that children his age did not learn in their schools, but still to think that he would grasp the concept of murder...

Suddenly, she felt the Nen within her shifting. Someone had come home, it seemed.

Wordlessly, Kurapika gave a final glance at the city below there before she walked towards the trap door that led to the inside of the building. She had just discovered another door in the bedroom that led to this small empty room that only had that trap door leading to the rooftop of the building.

When she entered the room, she saw the silhouette of a man standing by the bed. The window of the room was open, and moonlight spilled into the bedroom. The man was looking at the two children sleeping peacefully on the bed, completely unaware of being observed. Kurapika closed the door behind her soundlessly and approached that man.

She still said nothing as she reached his side. She glanced at the children, and then back to observe the man's visage. It was unreadable, but she could read his eyes. Those obsidian-like orbs of eyes had a soft light in them. She did, however, notice the shallow cuts that blemished his handsome face. She could also smell brimstone about his person, and she noticed that his outfit as well as the flesh underneath had several odd cuts that seemed as if they were done by razor-sharp wind.

"What happened?" She asked softly as she raised a hand and activated her Holy Chain.

The tinkling sound of the chains chimed in the room softly, and it gave off faint silvery glow. The Nen chain moved to surround Kuroro's body, and it gave off a warm white glow as it healed those insignificant cuts. While they really were nothing, Kurapika figured that it would be better to handle things fast if she could afford it. Besides, she could feel that Kuroro could barely stand on his two legs despite showing no sign of weakness. For some reasons, he was thoroughly drained of his energy and stamina.

Kuroro closed his eyes as he relished the pleasant feeling of being healed. It seemed that Kurapika's Holy Chain refreshed him to certain extent that he could allow himself to sit down on the floor and leaned his back against the bedside. He propped one knee and rested one arm on it. His eyes stared at nothing in particular in the darkness of the room. Had he tried to do so earlier, he would have just fallen on his knees rather ungracefully. Kurapika sat next to him and waited for him to say something. For him to be that tired, it had to be something really massive.

"The Lady of the Lake," Kuroro paused, allowing Kurapika to remember the said Lady as she had only seen her once in the flashback of their pasts years ago, "she demanded that I used the Solomon Ring, to show her how much I can control the demons."

"And?"

"Ishtar could summon all 72 of them. I could do only 55."

Kurapika was warily impressed. She vaguely concluded that the cuts all over him were due to the effect of the summoning.

"That is a big figure. No wonder you are this drained." She said huskily.

Kuroro had not bothered telling her about the first stage of the test, which was the battle with the other creatures. He thought of it as insignificant compared to what the Lady had made him do vis-à-vis the Solomon Ring. He figured that she would not be interested in it.

"What would happen if you tried to summon all 72 of them?" She asked with low voice.

"Simple. I'll die, either from utter exhaustion or from losing control of those demons as my concentration breaks due to the fatigue." He answered with a chuckle, as if it was an amusing concept.

"…" Kurapika leaned her back against the bedside and tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling above. "I doubt you'll ever need 55 demons for anything, much less 72. I don't think you even need 10."

"I don't like using the Solomon Ring." Kuroro admitted. "It maybe much more effective and efficient, but it drains more energy than using pure Nen."

"Then don't use it." Kurapika said in a whispery voice.

"Yes, Ma'am." Kuroro responded with a low chuckle.

"Especially…" Kurapika added almost reluctantly. "…since Meta can hear their voices when they are being summoned." Bia had told Kurapika about Meta hearing voices by writing on her palm; her new method of communication as of late.

Kuroro closed his eyes.

"I suspected as much. Some of the demons said some things about someone being able to listen to their voices, and they were looking to the direction of the city."

Upon being summoned, those demons had immediately asked him of what his orders or wishes were, but some had been distracted by 'someone who was listening to them'. He had not voiced any questions or orders to them, in case they deliberately misinterpreted any of his words. Instead, he dismissed them as soon as he could feel that he had been reaching his limit. Counting the number of the summoned demons as 55 strong while seeing how Kuroro was still sane and very much in control, the Lady of the Lake was very satisfied with him.

"You don't need the power of the Solomon Ring." Kurapika said, as if trying to convince him.

"No, I don't." He could feel the cold touch of the cruel ring around his finger. "I don't even want it."

"…You're odd," said Kurapika, but a small smile was playing on her lips.

Kuroro turned to look at her while intending to give a witty remark, but something caught his interest and he forgot all comments he had in his mind. The room was dark, and the dim illumination of the moon was the only source of light in the room, but it was enough to allow him to notice the faint trace of redness on her sclera and around her eyes in general. Intrigued, Kuroro shifted so that he could take a closer look at her eyes.

Just in the same instant, Kurapika turned to see what Kuroro was trying to do. She came face-to-face with Kuroro; their faces were only a few inches apart. Kuroro reached out to touch one of her eyes with his thumb. Out of reflex Kurapika closed her eyes, and he touched her eyelids. They were hot.

She had been crying.

As he withdrew his hand from her face, he did not ask anything. He knew that she would tell when she was ready or willing to.

He had fleetingly thought that perhaps it was just one of those notorious mood swings that women tended to have during certain times, but he had this feeling that it was not the case this time. For all he knew, Kurapika was a cool-headed logical woman who hardly ever cried for some trivial things.

Kurapika opened her eyes and gazed into those obsidian eyes of his. She seemed to be searching for something, but found none. After a while, she finally answered his unspoken question in a whisper.

"Meta knows...that I killed Pakunoda."

Kuroro raised both eyebrows at this. It was a very strange notion that almost made no sense. How could the boy know? Kurapika sensed this question from him, and she explained to him.

"He saw her ghost…back then in Yorkshin City. In the building where your Spiders buried her body."

Kurapika then told him exactly what had happened back there in the Scavenger's Ground.

xXx

"She's so…sad…" Meta told her as he buried his face to her arm which he was leaning on. "She said she doesn't hate you…"

Kurapika's throat felt strangled and she was unable to breathe.

"Mom…Why?" Meta shed a tear as he continued to ask his mother.

The world seemed to have turned silent, except for the strong wind that suddenly blew. Kurapika was still staring at the spot where Pakunoda's face was. Her mind felt numb, but still her brains managed to logically think. She assumed that Meta had seen her ghost; she was aware of that perceptive aspect of him. As for where…She could only think of Yorkshin City when the boy was in the custody of the Spiders, kept in that dilapidated building of Headquarter of theirs.

_She's so sad…So sad…_

Sad? Why? If Meta had really seen her ghost, she had instantly assumed that she would be vengeful at most, angry, or at least bitter. But sad? Was she sad because she could not be with the Spiders anymore?

Her pondering was interrupted when she felt a gentle squeeze on her arm. She looked around and saw Bia clinging to her with her wide eyes looking at her with what seemed like concern. Kurapika did notice that the ice that had frozen the little white-haired girl's expression was beginning to thaw. Bia cocked her head sideways and wrote on her palm:

'Why' and 'cry'.

At that time, Kurapika had shed tears as well. She had not expected Pakunoda not to hate her, considering the hateful relationship between her and the Genei Ryodan at the time of her death. She had had hallucinations of Pakunoda and Uvogin—though those were no more than the remnants of her victims' Nens—haunting her during the time when she had fevers after the whole Yorkshin auction fiasco.

Above all, however, it was the frustration of not being able to tell the truth to her son that distressed her to no end, and thus prompting her to shed tears of despair. Things were too complicated to explain, and he was too young to understand. She had not answered his question. She could not.

xXx

They sat side-by-side in silence. Kurapika had told him everything calmly and almost detachedly. She had a frozen mask of indifference etched on her face. Kuroro stared at the empty darkness in the room; his face thoughtful.

"Are you still upset?" He asked her finally, his voice quiet.

"…Somewhat…"

"He discovered an unpleasant fact. That is all that I see. Why are you upset?"

Kurapika had opened her mouth to answer—or rather, to refute his statements vehemently—but decided against it. When dealing with Kuroro Lucifer, she had to be really coherent with her words and answers otherwise he would just keep firing her down; finding mistakes and loopholes in her arguments. As such, Kurapika thought it over.

Yes she was upset to find out that Meta had discovered it since a while ago and not from her own mouth. It was even more unsettling that he had heard of it from Pakunoda herself. What else had she told him? However, a small part of herself whispered to her that there was something else that made her upset.

It was the fact that her reputation in Meta's eyes had been marred. She was afraid that he would hate her if he found out that she had murdered someone. But then again… He was only four-years old. Perhaps he would not hate her because he had not understood the whole concept of killing and murder, but she would not be so sure of it once he had grown up. What if he remembered that incident when he was older and turned to despise her because of that?

…Was she being paranoid?

"Well?" Kuroro asked again.

"I…I guess I'm afraid because he'll hate me for it. Also…" She was hesitant to answer, but under Kuroro's intense gaze she finally spilled it out, "…maybe I'm just ashamed that he has discovered my crime."

"Hmm…" Kuroro hummed as he looked away, back into the darkness of the room.

They remained silent for a while, until Kuroro spoke again; his tone even and composed as ever.

"You call it a crime. If he can't handle yours," he turned to look at Kurapika in the eyes; there was even a slight amusement in those obsidian eyes, "how can he handle mine?"

At this, Kurapika was completely taken aback and flabbergasted. Of course, it went without saying that Kuroro's reputation was far worse than hers. He might as well be one of the most dangerous people living on Earth considering all the crimes he had committed—though he did not seem bothered at all by this (and perhaps this was exactly why he was very dangerous). Compared to his, her crime might seem puny and insignificant; pale in comparison.

And he was the father.

Now Kurapika had yet another issue that was a very potential cause for a grand headache, and so she let out a frustrated groan. She pulled her knees close to her body and buried her face between her knees. Kuroro chuckled very faintly and ruffled her golden hair.

"You should trust the boy more, Kurapika. Trust him to handle that piece of information, and everything else that will be given to him."

_Trust…_She repeated the word in her mind.

Now that she thought over it, Killua had been born into a family of assassins and grew up with them, yet now he had grown up to become such a fine young man—notably with Gon's help, though. Perhaps she ought to really trust Meta more, and his future as well. Perhaps, he would find someone who would help him go through his parents dark shadows; considering their not-very-pretty pasts.

Suddenly, she felt like a burden had been slightly lifted off her chest.

"Oh, and another thing: I think you can stop feeling guilty over Paku's death." Kuroro added, as he kept staring at certain spot in the darkness.

Kurapika looked up to regard him with a how-do-you-know-that-I'm-feeling-guilty look. Kuroro caught this look and raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"It's quite obvious." He stated with a slightly crooked smile, and he went back staring at the darkness of the room. "In any case, I'm quite positive that Paku doesn't blame you for her death."

"You can never be so sure about that." Kurapika retorted.

"Oh, but I do know." Suddenly, Kuroro bowed his head lowly, but Kurapika did not catch this strange gesture since she was too busy rebutting his words.

"No, you don't. At least not 100%. The two of you might hail from Ryuusei-gai, but that doesn't mean you know exactly what she was feeling or thinking during her time of death." She argued.

"Trust me on this one, Kurapika. Or at least," Kuroro turned to her, raised a finger and tapped the corner of his left eye, "at least trust _this_."

Kurapika's mouth was hanging open. She did not exactly understand what he was implying, and he did not seem inclined to explain either.

True that Kuroro's left eye had been granted the True Vision via Ishtar's blood/essence within him, but it seemed that the ability had taken one step further and evolved. Kuroro had not been looking purposelessly at the dark recess of the room. He was looking at one particular entity that was invisible to Kurapika's eyes.

Pakunoda's spirit hovered in the room, observing the two of them with serene eyes. She was rather jealous of them; not because of their intimacy—she had never thought of her Danchou in such romantic term—but because of the fact that they were living. She missed the feeling of being alive, of having tangible flesh and blood. It had been so long…

When Kuroro had said the part about her not blaming the Kuruta for her death, their eyes met for a few seconds. Pakunoda could not help but to smile broadly at this eye contact. She had no idea on how her Danchou could see her, but she would simply be grateful for the opportunity. To substantiate Kuroro's assertion that she was not bitter of her death, Pakunoda nodded at him, before she gave a deep bow of gratitude and respect.

Earlier, Pakunoda's spirit had the urge to return to Ryuusei-gai for the last time, and she had felt even more compelled to visit the Spider Head's private quarter. She was not so surprised to see both her Danchou and the chain-assassin together. In fact, she had been elated to see them. She took her time observing them and their interactions with each other, and then she came to a comforting conclusion that all would be well.

She could finally rest in peace.

The dead Spider then straightened up and said a "Take care, both of you," before her spirit started to glowed dimly and dispersed into tiny balls of light that glowed weakly. It was as if her spirit was shaped out of thousands of fireflies; and now those fireflies were dying off.

To show his respect to her, Kuroro bowed his head as she departed from the material world—though he could still respond properly to Kurapika's arguments. He told her that she ought to at least trust his True Vision, but he did not intend to tell her about the apparition of Pakunoda's spirit to her. She would be better off not knowing that her spirit had paid a visit. The Kuruta was already distressed as she was, there was no need to add more to the tension.

Kurapika was still staring at him as if he had grown another head. With a sigh that was accompanied with faint smile, Kuroro lifted one hand. He put the palm of that hand on her eyes so she closed them out of reflex, then he pulled her by her neck and rested his chin on the crown of her golden hair. He closed his eyes and buried his face among her silken hair.

"I'm exhausted, you are distraught. Let's call it a day and rest for now."

Kurapika did not protest against this. It sounded good to her. There were faint whiffs of woods lingering about his body, as well as the strong scent of brimstone as the result of him attending to his duty during the day. However, she found it endearingly comforting.

* * *

Nights in desert were always cold. However, around the vicinity of the forest of Ryuusei-gai it was a different case. One might call it an anomaly, but for Bara it was a pleasant anomaly. They stayed at the outskirt of the forest for the night, because it was more comfortable than inside the humid forest or out there in the freezing world of sand. There were those spider guardians all over the outskirts, but Anansi was there to ensure their safety. Actually, the reason of Anansi's presence was not solely to guarantee their safeties, but more because he had things to talk about with Bara.

Una was fast asleep next to her father like how she always did with her mother when she was still alive. Bara looked at the faraway desolate horizon of the desert, visible between the trunks of trees around their campsite. He had been telling Anansi about his first meeting with Kuroro Lucifer, and his thoughts about that young man. However, that idle conversation was simply to kill time.

"They are coming." Anansi suddenly said as he looked to the direction of the desert.

_Sure they are,_ said Bara with a soft neigh, as if mocking whoever was coming.

"Shall we go and greet them before they touch down here?" Anansi asked as he stood up and dusted himself.

_No need. They are a bunch of ridiculously patient people. You can make them wait for hours to no end, and they won't complain,_ said the black unicorn, but still he got up ever so gently so that he did not to disturb the sleeping unicorn next to him.

Both of them walked to the border of the forest, where the soles of their feet (and hoofs) touched the cold sand. A few seconds later, there was a glowing silhouette standing before them, floating a foot above the sand. The glow wavered and twisted, before it finally took a solid form of a youth with slight build.

The youth had creamy skin colour, with curly locks of bronze hairs framing his child-like round face. His bright blue eyes looked at Anansi and Bara with heightened awareness, and the ivory white clothing that wrapped his slender body danced around him gently. A pair of pure white wings bloomed majestically from his back. The youth smiled at them genially and bowed his head in courtesy.

_**Greetings, my friends**__,_ said the youth.

"Friends? I'm not sure about me, but are you really his friend, Bara? Since you're a half-demon and he's an angel…" Anansi looked at the black unicorn beside him with a smirk.

_Well, I just happen to know this particular one._ Bara 'shrugged', and turned to address the young-looking angel. _Hey, what's up, angel-boy?_

_**I see that you are well, Bara. How are you doing?**_ The angel boy said with a polite smile.

_As you can see, fine and dandy. That Apaosa bastard is still well-contained in here, no worries. Well, formalities aside, you're here 'coz those old-geezers up there send you to investigate the sudden appearance of a horde of demons in this forest, ain't it? You alone? _

The youth looked slightly awkward. He was not used to the informalities and the brusqueness in the unicorn's mannerism; that much was clear.

_**Yes, my superiors asked me to investigate, and so they deemed it sufficient to send only one of us. Do you mind explaining? **_

_Suuu~~re, no biggie. In fact, we're here especially to explain things to you._ Bara turned to Anansi. _Right, buddy?_

"Yes." Anansi stepped forward. "Hmm… Well, for politeness' sake, let me introduce myself. I'm Anansi."

_**Yes, I have heard of you, sir.**_

"Um…No offense here, but you're being too polite and formal here. It's giving me the creeps, or it is just me?"

_It's just you, old man._ Bara snorted.

"Thank you so much," Anansi said in a clipping sarcastic tone, before he turned to the winged youth again. "Those demons you're concerned with, they belong to the Solomon Ring. They were summoned today just for the sake of proving that the current master is capable enough of controlling them. Turned out he passed wonderfully with flying colours."

_Anansi, cut the crap with those praises about your boy. It bores me to death, already,_ Bara feigned a yawn.

Anansi glared at the rude unicorn, but continued 'explaining' to the angel, "Yeah well, so bottom line is there's nothing to be worried about. The Ring is in good hands. You can go back and tell your bosses that things are fine here."

The angel looked rather sceptically at them, especially Anansi.

_**Kuroro Lucifer does not hold a good reputation,**_ he tried to argue.

"Sure he doesn't. Heck, he's a criminal by profession, actually. Then again, who's a saint nowadays? Even Kurapika isn't that saintly either." Anansi shrugged, and added inwardly: _considering how she can emit such murderous aura sometimes…_

_**Kurapika Kuruta…Yes, I have heard of her as well…And their son…**_

_They sure do hear a lot of things, don't you think? Gossipers to the core, eh? _Bara whispered to Anansi.

"Shut up, Bara. What if he hears you?" Anansi whispered back furiously.

_Oh, bother. He's too nice to do anything just because of some remarks._ Bara snorted while rolling his eyes._ Besides, look. That angel-boy is so pre-occupied with his thoughts he doesn't notice us whispering this loud. We may be cracking fireworks and he won't notice, for all I know._

True enough, the young-looking angel was looking down at the ground beneath him with his arms crossed. He was obviously so deep in thought he did not notice his surrounding.

"You seem to know him so much." Anansi said with an accusing tone.

_He was the one checking on me when I first adopted this shitty demon inside me,_ Bara scrunched up his face and tsk-ed. _And I can tell you it's not nice to get nagged at by some youngling angel. He kept on tailing after me until he's damn sure I'm in control._

Anansi leaned further towards the black demonic unicorn.

"Youngling?"

_Yeah, don't cha know? Angel-boy here doesn't have a name 'coz he belongs to the lowest rank of the angelic hierarchy. Only an Angel, he is. Higher-ranking angels like Seraphs and Cherubs definitely have names. _When Bara saw an expression of curiosity blooming on Anansi's face, he quickly added:_ Don't ask me about the hierarchy! Do your own research!_

"Don't be such a miser!" Anansi started tugging at his black mane.

_Shut up._ Bara pulled away from Anansi's grasp, and turned to the young angel. _And he's taking his bloody sweet time. Yo, angel-boy!_

The angel looked up and blinked.

_**Yes?**_

_You're taking too long. Make up your mind already. What's the big deal now?_ Bara scraped the sand with his hoofs impatiently.

The angel looked at him with solemn eyes with a tinge of sadness in them, causing them to appear like a pair of glassy pale-blue marbles.

_**Bara…**_he started, and he raised a hand to put it on his chest. _**I sense impurity…from all three of them…**_

_Say what? _Bara narrowed his eyes. Oh, yes. Come to think of it, in his first meeting with that Kuroro-lad he did smell that the lad had very odd blood running in his veins. Well, he supposed that such peculiar-smelling blood could very well be defined as impure. But the other two; the woman and the kid, he was not very sure of them. Perhaps their bloods did smell like Kuroro-lad, but even if they did Bara was sure that it was not as strong as Kuroro-lad's.

Anansi might seem composed in the outside, but inwardly he was cringing. He knew exactly what 'impurity' the angel was referring about. He knew that they were going to ask about it, but—

_Care to explain 'bout it, Anansi? You're his daddy, so you gotta know one thing or two about it, right?_

…talk about bad timing.

_**He is his father? But—**_

_Just a figure of speech, angel-boy. Sheesh, you're an all-serious-freak, honestly. He's kinda like the lad's surrogate father, so to say. _

Anansi sighed and shook his head; not because of the antics of the two odd creatures before him, but because he knew that he was not going to divulge the matter so easily either. It was Kuroro's secret—if he considered it one—and so it was up to Kuroro to decided whether to tell others or not. He might be Kuroro's (self-proclaimed) foster father, but still he respected the boy's privacy.

"Unfortunately, it's not up to me to tell you. If you want to know, ask Kuroro yourself." Anansi said with a shrug and crossed his arms; showing that the topic was closed.

_Now who's the miser here?_ Bara snorted, but he did not pry further.

_**Oh my…This is bad. I suppose Kuroro Lucifer will not be too delighted to have me asking him about such delicate issue…**_ The angel mused.

_Yeah, appear to him like this and he'll blast you to your afterlife with his horde of demons,_ Bara laughed.

_**Hm? But we angels do not have afterlife—**_

_Like I said, it's just a figure of speech. Gosh! Loosen up a bit, angel-boy._ This time, Bara even arched his head dramatically as he rolled his eyes in exasperation. _Anyway, you still gotta make sure that it's safe to leave that thingamagic Ring in Kuroro-boy's hands, correct?_

The angel nodded. Anansi observed Bara with keen interest. From the way Bara spoke, Anansi could sense that the black unicorn had something in mind.

_Well, let's do it this way. You trust me to handle this shitty demon inside me and I do a good job with it, yes? So now why don't I do the watch-over duty in your stead? I mean, I'm experienced with handling demons by now. _

"It's only one demon." Anansi deadpanned.

_Apaosa is a kick-ass demon, alright? _Bara glared at the spider incarnation with his glazing red eyes, and turned back to the angel; who was looking at the demonic unicorn with anticipation. _So, instead of you risking your neck to get an interview with Kuroro-boy, I can accompany him and, for example, be his counsellor or the sort about handling those demons. If anything real bad happens, I'm gonna contact you. Sounds good?_

"Too good to be true, actually." Anansi responded.

_You shut up. I'm talking to angel-boy here._ Bara felt like kicking the dark-skinned spider incarnation with his rear legs.

_**Why are you willing to do so much? You are not under obligation to do this,**_the angel asked while tilting his head sideways in slight puzzlement.

_Oh, I just like him. It's fun with him. _Bara grinned; rather maniacally in Anansi's opinion.

…_**Very well. I shall inform my superiors about this arrangement. I will let you know if they agree with this.**_ With that, the angel spread his wings wide and they began to beat gently.

Soon enough, the angel was high in the air, and with one bow of respect to the two of them, he flew to the night sky above and disappeared among the clouds. Anansi and Bara stayed where they were standing, both staring at the starry midnight sky with their own thoughts in their minds. There was only the sound of sands shifting as chilly night wind blew. Finally, after a while, Anansi broke the silence.

"You're really going to stay with them? You don't strike me as the settle-down-somewhere-permanently type."

_Nah, not exactly permanent. I guess._ Bara shrugged and turned around to go back to their temporary campsite.

"It's for Una, isnt' it?" Anansi guessed out loud as he followed the jet-black unicorn.

Although Anansi's question hit home, Bara said nothing. He then recalled one of the stories that Una had told him.

Una mentioned that six years ago, after the end of the journey around the world in search of the Scarlet Eyes with Kuroro and Kurapika, she had gone back to Chiron. The reason for her sudden visit was because she wanted to know what Chiron thought of her staying permanently with them. After observing them, and seeing the human civilization from far away when the two humans needed to go to some cities or villages, Una had had her share of observation about humans. She had seen their interaction, she had seen how they always lived in groups, she had seen how they were never alone; at least that was the impression she had. Una had always been lonely, even during her stay in Chiron's forest. Things changed ever since she started travelling with the two intriguing humans.

Bara was aware; after all the stories that his daughter told him, that Una would not have been this present sweet Una if it was not for those two humans. She would have isolated herself from the world, drawn-back and painfully introvert. She might even be hateful, for all he could imagine.

_It seems that I owe them more than enough for what they've done for Una_, the black Unicorn mused. _I wasn't there for her, but they were._

They had reached their campsite, and Una was still sleeping peacefully; blissfully unaware of the event that had transpired just a few metres away.

"Well…" Anansi sat down and leaned back against a fat tree trunk. "To be honest I'm surprised that Una still retains her third-person manner of speech. I thought Kurapika would've beaten some language lessons into her."

_Does it matter? I don't mind it. It's cute._ Bara said as he lay down next to his sleeping daughter.

"Pfft. Doting parent."

_Like you are one to talk._

Low rumble of laughter could be heard around the campsite, but it was soft enough not to disturb the sleep of a young black-horned unicorn.

* * *

Nobunaga yawned widely; so wide it could fit a beehive, as he made his way to the dining hall. It was decided the day before that they were going to leave the town after lunch, since the meeting had ended. The meeting stretched for a few days because Fino—of all people—felt that they would need some quality time together, especially when they had a new member. In fact, she insisted they stayed so that Heen could feel more comfortable and knew better of his comrades.

(Of course Shalnark knew that she did on purpose that because she simply wanted to enjoy their companion since she found it fun to have the Spiders around.)

The samurai scowled at the thought of the new member. He was just a snotty kid and he was already behaving as if he was good friends with their Danchou! He even had the nerve to say that calling Kuroro Lucifer as 'Danchou' would feel weird to him.

"_Too bad. You'll just have to learn to do it, otherwise perhaps we have to beat the lesson into you now?"_ was what Machi had said with the glacial, gelid air of South Pole.

Nobunaga vaguely wondered if he really had seen Heen's face turning an odd shade of blue or green when Machi threatened him. If that brat really did, then good for him.

He was passing the kitchen when he suddenly heard faint voices coming from it. He instantly detected the voices as belonging to Shalnark and his girlfriend. Nobunaga really had no intention of eavesdropping, but his hearing just _happened_ to be really sharp.

"…Danchou and Kurapika are coming back here soon."

"With Meta?"

"With Meta, and another kid. You'll like her."

The moment he had heard the 'coming back' part, Nobunaga had not bothered to listen to the rest of the conversation. He hurried back to where his comrades were waiting and boisterously announced that their Danchou would be coming back soon.

Of course, Shalnark was none too happy when he was assaulted by some Spiders that were just too excited with the prospect of seeing their Danchou again after so long.

"I thought it's decided that we're going to move after lunch today?" He demanded, trying to sound authoritative but failed miserably.

"We are waiting until Danchou is here!" Nobunaga declared while sitting down on the wooden floor of the inn cross-legged; showing his immovable resolute.

Shalnark felt like fainting there and then. Fino was not helping either; she herself was elated beyond calming down when she heard that the whole Genei Ryodan would gather there, complete with Kurapika and Meta. And another kid.

Well, perhaps Danchou would not think much of it. Perhaps he would merely blink and look at them with his impassive face, and he would go on as if life was normal. In fact, perhaps he would be quite pleased to see them again. _Perhaps_, because sometimes their Danchou could be rather unpredictable.

For Kurapika, however, Shalnark knew that it was no _perhaps_. It was _absolute_.

She would be absolutely mortified to see the inn swarmed and occupied by Spiders. She would absolutely be pissed off to know that Fino had to close the inn to the public for several days especially because the Spiders were staying there. She would absolutely go into another grand verbal fight with Nobunaga about each other's annoying presence.

Oh, the same could apply to Meta and Bia. He would be _absolutely_ delighted to see that there were more people for him to play with. Bia would absolutely remain expressionless even after seeing a group of strange people.

Shalnark felt like tearing his hair. He could only wait in despair until Danchou and his entourage came back to Prancing Pony Inn.

And then all hell would break lose.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ Yeeeah, finally holiday! I'm SO going to finish this sequel this time round and that's it! XD I am NOT going to make yet another sequel X I think some are already bored with this whole thingamagic. _

_Thank you __**MARYLOVER**__ for the idea of the Genei Ryodan as the 'people of the world/everywhere/nowhere'. Yep, I took it right from your review ^o^ _

_I know that some of you don't like the Pakunoda's ghost concept, but she has made her appearance and so I must make her disappearance as well, otherwise it'll be a big plothole -_- _

_As some reviewers said, these few chapters are dedicated for settling everything down (and hence this title now =P) _

_Ps: Imagine if it's only Kuroro who'll be raising Meta alone without Kurapika. What kind of a monster-kid will Meta become? O.o LOL _

_**Next:**__ Finally, they were going to reach the town which was Kurapika's home; where the Prancing Pony Inn was and where the entire Genei Ryodan gang was waiting for them. With everyone present, what kind of merriment (and chaos) would ensue there? _


	27. Chapter 25: Home

_**Disclaimer: **__Although it's been this far, HxH is still not mind (dammit)_

_**Story so far:**__ Kurapika and co. are finally coming back to the Prancing Pony Inn, and it was not only Fino's family to welcome them, but the whole Genei Ryodan as well. How would Kurapika react to it? Would it be as Shalnark had predicted?_

* * *

**Chapter 25**

_**HOME**_

* * *

"What. The. Hell," was the first thing that came from Kurapika's mouth when her group was several metres away from Fino's town. To be precise, they were mounting the two unicorns from the forest right to the direction of the Prancing Pony Inn, considering that the inn was just at the border between the forest and the town.

Some of the trees had fallen down; and they were not just the small, thin trees but the big, fat, old trees. It looked as if a truck with a sleeping driver had run over the whole place, or as if a horde of mad bulls had charged through the forest. There were even splatters of blood here and there; scarce and thin as they were. The colour of the blood was almost thoroughly black, indicating that whatever bloodshed had occurred there, it happened at least a few days ago. Even 'better', the trail of destruction led directly towards the Prancing Pony Inn.

"Una, are you sure this is the right way to Fino's place? It looks different." Meta innocently asked the younger unicorn from his seat on Bara's back.

_Una is sure. Una thinks something big happened and it altered the look of the forest,_ Una tried to explain. She was not so inclined on imagining what kind of disaster had occurred there, though.

"She's right. I can see the inn from here." Kuroro said as he narrowed his eyes slightly to focus his eyesight better.

_Bwahahaha! This place looks like two dinosaurs had been having a wrestling contest here,_ Bara laughed.

Kurapika was too shocked to utter a single comment. She looked at the extent of the disaster, and then to the Prancing Pony Inn at the distance. The place looked peaceful and serene enough, so that destruction-factor _might_ not have reached that comfy inn. But…

The more she observed the wasted forest, the more she spotted hints of fighting styles that she had seen before. Those deep slashes all over the tree trunks and those clean cuts that severed the trees from their bases; they could only be done by certain types of blades. Those leaves that looked as if they had been fried by high voltages and the feel of lingering electric charges in the air; she felt familiar with them. The more she thought over these gradually obvious hints, the more veins throbbed on her temple. The muscle at the corner of her mouth twitched irritably, and she already felt like punching the crap out of certain people.

And these hints obviously did not escape Kuroro Lucifer's keen observation.

"Kurapika, let's not jump into conclusions first." He told her lightly, although there was a vague hint of amusement in his voice.

"Fine. Fair enough." Kurapika was virtually glowering. "But if it's really _them_, you are not stopping me from beating some common senses into their brains. And if the inn is in a mess…"

"Feel free to maul them." Kuroro finished for her with carefree voice.

"Good that we have this understanding." If Gon and the others were present, they would have died for a few seconds upon seeing the devil's face on Kurapika's visage.

_A question. Is this foreboding conversation your typical kind of conversation, or is this a special occasion?_ Bara asked, but he turned to Una for a more honest answer. After all, third-person observation was usually more accurate.

_Unfortunately, it's typical of them._ The black-horned unicorn answered.

_Oh gosh. Kiddos, I hope you don't be like your parents,_ Bara said dramatically.

"Huh? Why?" Meta asked with huge eyes, while Bia only cocked her head sideways in a questioning manner.

…_I guess you two are already a lost cause,_ the black unicorn sighed.

"How rude of you." Kurapika glared at Bara mildly.

"Rather than arguing, I'd say we go to the inn and see if it survives or not." Kuroro intercepted before the two of them launched another session of argument. For some reasons, he had the feeling that Kurapika just had the knack to go into heated arguments with about everybody—no, scratch that; it's every creature—that she met.

"Fine." She grumbled.

* * *

"Oh, oh, they are coming! They are coming! I can see them!" Fino exclaimed excitedly as she peeked from one of the windows of the inn.

"For real? Lemme see!" Nobunaga joined her. "Oooh! She's right! I can see Danchou!" Then he frowned. "But why is he riding a black horse?"

"Oh, who cares?" The innkeeper's daughter waved a dismissive hand and ran towards the kitchen.

Shalnark followed her like a duckling to its mother, and he had a slightly worried/nervous expression on his youthful face. He watched as Fino began gathering some items that suspiciously looked like glittery pieces of confetti and other papers. He was even more worried as she stuffed all of those into a ball that looked forebodingly like a party prop; the kind that people usually had in surprise party.

"Uh, Fino? I don't know what you're trying to do, but I don't think it's a good idea…" He began unsurely.

"Oh, c'mon, Shal! This is going to be fun!" Fino spun on her heels and grinned widely at him.

Without waiting for him to respond in any kind, she dashed past him to the dining hall cum living room and he could hear her calling at some of the Spiders to help her with the 'set-up', and he could hear Kalluto helping her up. He knew what she was going to do, and he dreaded to think what kind of reaction that Kurapika would show. Nevertheless, he was simply grateful that at least she had not dragged the entire Genei Ryodan into participating with her silly concept of a 'welcoming party' of the sort. Oh, yes Fino was fully capable of pulling that off, no argument in that. If that happened, not only Kurapika but Danchou would also give her consent to subject him to a kind of torture that needed heavy censorship…Probably.

"Shal! C'mon here! They're already walking on foot!" Fino called out to him from the living room.

Shalnark sighed. The least he could do to save his hide for now was to secure the furthest spot from the entrance door, lest Kurapika decided to lash out at whoever was closest to her—minus Fino, of course. She'd rather kill herself than to harm Fino.

So, the Spiders and Fino waited in anticipation. After a few seconds, Shalnark began to realise that this whole anticipation thing seemed so ridiculous and childish. Why was all the Spiders seemed so eager in the tension, anyway? Oh, right. Fino and her—

The door opened.

The group stepped in.

The 'surprise party ball'—or whatever it was called—snapped open just above the entrance door and all the confetti and colourful papers showered down on the newcomers, stunning them into stone statues.

Fino's "YOU ARE FINALLY BACK!" high-pitched squeal of delight rang in the room as she pounced on Kurapika, followed a chorus of "DANCHOU!" by some of the more enthusiastic Spiders.

Meta's cry of joy came next as he bounded to Fino; who let go of Kurapika and hugged the boy as if he was her lifeline.

Kurapika, Kuroro, and Bia were positively shell-shocked. Heck, Bia was so scared of the sudden 'attack' that she whimpered pitifully and grabbed the adults' hands violently. After a while; notably after Fino and Meta had finally calmed down, Kuroro—as usual—was the first one of the three to recover.

"Hello, Fino. You are as lively as ever." He said with a low chuckle.

"Hi, Kuroro! It's been so long! And you're as handsome as ever, I see. Heheh." She grinned cheekily as she put down Meta.

"Danchou!" Nobunaga was the first to approach the group, and his eyes were lit up like a little child who had seen Santa Claus for the first time.

"Nobu." Kuroro addressed him, and then turned to look at every one of his Spiders. "And I see that we have full attendance here. I honestly wasn't expecting this. What's happening," he turned to look at a certain person hiding at one corner, "Shalnark?"

Shalnark twitched nervously, but before he could respond to Kuroro's inquiry, he had been attacked by a certain little man. Hearing that name, Meta had turned to the said young man and dashed towards him with open arms. He yelled out his name and practically tackled the youthful Spider with a bone-crushing hug.

"Um… Well…" Shalnark started unsurely as he tried to balance the squirming, all-too-excited Meta in his arms. "Nobu overheard me telling Fino that you are coming back soon. So they had a mutiny against me and decided to wait here for you."

"I figure as much." Kuroro nodded.

"Who…"

Everyone fell silent as soon as they heard the infamously volatile-tempered Kuruta opened her mouth and uttered that one word whisper. There was an underlying soon-to-be-volcanic-eruption tone in her voice. Shalnark openly backed away while Kuroro raised a quizzical eyebrow. He knew what she was going to ask—or rather, demand for an explanation—about, though.

"Who…" She repeated. "…on Earth…planned this…" she grabbed a fistful of colourful papers and confetti that were nesting on her head, "_ridiculous idea?_"

"Shalnark's girlfriend, obviously." Phinks piped in cheerfully; way too cheerfully, actually.

Kurapika turned to said girl. "Fino?"

"Yeah, I did." Fino admitted with beaming smile.

That smile made Kurapika's face froze, and her bubbling anger suddenly was subdued—or more like quenched with water thrown at her. She then sighed heavily and put a hand on Fino's shoulder.

"Fino, I know you like strange things, but…can't you do things _normally_?" Kurapika sounded more like she was pleading.

"Huh? I thought that'll be more interesting."

"You're right, girl. It IS interesting." Phinks said with a smirk—which turned into a thin line of yes-Ma'am-I'm-behaving-well-Ma'am when Kurapika glared at him.

"Fine. One more question." She then turned to the Spiders; and Kuroro had a knowing grin on his face. This would be most entertaining. It always was when Kurapika decided to interrogate the Spiders. "Who the hell fought like there is no tomorrow out there, in the forest?"

There was a pin-drop silence engulfing the entire living room, before Phinks burst into laugher that almost bordered hysterical, with Feitan sniggering and Franklin laughing mildly. The other Spiders simply chuckled in amusement, but Nobunaga's expression practically shouted "I'm one of them!"—which of course earned Kurapika's wrathful glare.

"I'm not the only one!" was of course Nobunaga's reflexive response upon being showered with such glare.

"And you!" Kurapika glared and jabbed an accusing finger at Heen; who had the nerve to chuckle pleasingly as if he was not one of the culprits. "Don't pretend as if you are innocent. I know you are guilty of it as well!"

"Guilty? Come now, Kurapika. You make it sounds as if I've committed a horrible, unforgiveable crime." Heen spread his arms and shrugged.

"Crime? Oh please." Kurapika rolled her eyes. "Use your head a bit, will you? You should be aware that people of your calibre and theirs tend to inflict massive collateral damages when you engage in a fight. I don't care what motives you had for that fight, but if you want to wreak havoc, do it somewhere else far away from settlements like this!"

Another few seconds of silence, before Kuroro broke into light laughter.

"She's right. Bottom line is not to attract too much attention. With that kind of display out there, it's easy to trace that the source came from this place. I hope you all know the implication of that." Kuroro said as he looked at his Spiders with his Danchou persona on.

It went without saying that the Spiders did understand what Kuroro was trying to say. The town itself was almost like a forgotten town amidst the rush of technology and modernisation overwhelming the world. It was one of the perfect places to be their base; or something along that line. However, above all the Spiders knew that the inn was especially important because not only that it was the exact meeting place for the Spiders from time to time (the inn was big enough to allow the Spiders to congregate in one of the spacious rooms on the upper floor), but also because it was the residential places of certain important people.

Nobunaga had opened his mouth to justify his actions, but he thought better of it and closed his mouth. Instead, he scratched the back of his head sheepishly as if he was caught red-handed stealing candies. Heen also shrugged and held up two hands in a surrendering gesture and said a "My bad."

"Danchou." Machi suddenly spoke up, and her tone was serious.

"Yes, Machi?"

(Meta had called out to Machi and waved at her energetically, but she merely looked at him with neutral face—without her intimidating cold expression—and gave no other response whatsoever.)

"…Who's that kid?"

All eyes then turned to Bia; who had calmed down and was studying the members of Spiders with her impassive face.

"Gosh, Danchou. Several weeks with the Kuruta and now you already have another kid?" Phinks' face turned really astonished, and he was rewarded with a good slap on the back of his head.

"Idiot! Like that's possible!" Nobunaga spat, and he glared at Kalluto who was snickering indiscreetly.

Kurapika then also joined Nobunaga in degrading the eyebrow-less Spider about his brain capacity—for one they saw things eye to eye—while Kuroro turned to look at Heen. Heen understood the meaning behind that look that Kuroro gave him, and so he responded with a carefree shrug. He did not care anymore if Kuroro decided to announce that Bia was Heen's blood-related sister or not. However, he was concerned about Bia; he did not know whether the now mute girl was aware of that fact already or not.

"Well then. Kurapika." The said Kuruta turned to Kuroro. "I need to speak with them in private. If you would?"

Kurapika narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. She had nothing against Kuroro talking with his subjects in private. She simply disliked the notion of the entire Genei Ryodan infesting the homely inn.

"Fine." She grumbled before ushering the children _and_ Fino towards the upper floor.

"EEEEH? Why? Why? Why me also?" Fino protested as Kurapika relentlessly dragged her along.

"Fino, you are NOT a Spider, so you shouldn't be there and eavesdropping on their meeting." Kurapika deadpanned.

"HEEE, but I wanna hear them!"

"It's called _private_ for a reason."

Fino's protesting whines could be heard until Kurapika finally closed the door of one of the rooms above. Kuroro by then had taken a seat in that dining hall and observed his Spiders.

He noticed how Heen was already comfortable with being among the Spiders, if body language was anything to go by. Considering Nobunaga's personalities, he figured that the samurai had not approved of Heen joining them yet and the 'disaster' in the forest was perhaps the result of Nobunaga's test on Heen. That was really typical of Nobunaga. Judging from the age of the blood in the site of destruction in the forest, the fight had occurred a few days ago and so the Spiders had been staying in this inn for that long. It intrigued him because he knew that the Spiders did not stay in one place _together_ for a long time unless it was for a mission. He had only informed Shalnark that they were reaching the inn soon just the day before, so they at least heard of his arrival the day before or a few hours ago. So, someone had to play a role in making the Spiders stay in the inn. He could only think of Fino as the culprit, but how did she—

Kuroro frowned slightly. His train of thoughts were interrupted because he had noticed a faint whiff of fragrance that filled the dining hall. The last time he had been in the inn, there was no such scent. Looking around, he noticed several pots of plants at the corners of the room. Perhaps it was from those plants, but he had the feeling that those plants were not just for decoration.

"Danchou? What do you want to speak with us about? It is another mission?" Franklin asked with his husky voice.

"No. I think it is imperative for me to brief you on the current circumstances." Kuroro straightened up and clasped his hands in a very business-like manner. "With Heen as our newest member, we now only have one vacancy left in our ranks."

"Do you have any other candidates, Danchou?" Phinks asked.

"Not yet, for now. I will keep an eye on whoever is potential candidate, but if any of you spot anyone suitable, do notify me." Several heads nodded. "Now, regarding this inn."

For some reasons, Nobunaga had to freeze. Perhaps it was because of the fact that he almost destroyed the inn in his pissed-off-ness at Heen if not for Fino's interference.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I realise that you are very comfortable with this inn. So here's a rule: if we are to congregate here for any purposes, you are to do so in either a very discreet manner, or do it while blending with the crowds in ways that suit you. Do not attract attention to this inn."

Shalnark looked perfectly cool outside, but inside he felt like swooning. He knew that Danchou was implying that he intended to turn the inn into Genei Ryodan's Headquarter or the like. When he imagined what kind of wrath Kurapika would summon if she was to hear that (outrageous) idea, Shalnark could not help but to shudder.

"Now, any questions?"

Shizuku raised a hand.

"Yes, Shizuku?"

"Danchou, you still haven't told us about who that little girl with white hair is."

Franklin and several others shot Shizuku an odd look. It was strange that Shizuku manages to remember such peripheral details that she most likely would miss.

"Ah…" Kuroro leaned back in his seat and turned his head to gaze at the newest Spider. "I strongly feel that Heen will be the most appropriate one to answer the question."

All heads turned to Heen, but Phinks was the first one to blurt out his comment.

"What? Don't tell me that she's your daughter."

"Idiot. I'm too young to be her father." Heen deadpanned. "She's my sister, but she doesn't remember me due to amnesia."

It was not the whole truth, but it was not a lie either. Heen decided that the superficial information was enough to satisfy the Spiders, and he was right. The Spiders simply either nodded or hummed in response.

"And why is she with Danchou?" Nobunaga asked.

"Because she thinks he's her father." Heen answered before Kuroro could answer to that question.

There was another pin-drop silence, and Shalnark put a hand on his forehead. Heen was grinning conspiratorially at Kuroro, although the latter remained as composed as ever. After a while, Nobunaga broke into a roaring "WHAAAAT?" while Phinks laughed his head off with Feitan and Kalluto. Machi blinked in disbelief, Shizuku and Franklin donned an identical dumbstruck expression, while Koltopi and Bonolenov had their usual blank expression. Well, perhaps their eyes widened slightly but that was all.

"I believe," Kuroro started, and the Spiders went silent once more, "that further details pertaining this issue does not concern any of you. So we'll leave it as it is. Any more questions?"

Although Kuroro did not say it out loud, there was the underlying note of "only questions that have nothing to do with my private life" in his tone. Some of the Spiders looked at each other.

"So, there won't be a change in how we get things done?" Machi finally asked.

"No. Essentially, there isn't any major change." Kuroro answered smoothly.

"But won't Kurapika try to interfere?" Franklin asked.

"She won't. We have an agreement regarding that."

"Are we supposed to believe that Kuruta? She's always been a royal pain in the—OUCH!" Nobunaga was cut off as he received a sharp jab in his ribs from Machi. "OI! The hell was that for?"

"She is my responsibility, Nobu." There was finality in his voice, and Nobunaga knew better than to voice anything against the Kuruta anymore. "Now—"

A buzz interjected Kuroro's word. His cell phone was ringing, and after he looked at the Caller ID, he picked it up with the look of if-it's-not-important-I'm-going-to-hang-up-immediately in his almost bored face. Before he even utter a single syllable, the caller had bombarded him:

_[Problema esta vine, frater_ (Trouble is coming, brother)_]_

"Which is?" Kuroro asked, his voice perfectly composed.

_[Remember the guy whom you told me is dangerous, that I should avoid at any cost? The one with flaming red hair and looks like some ridiculous jester?]_

"Yes. What of him?"

_[Well, bad news is he's walking towards the inn where you are right now.]_

Kuroro did not know how Lucian managed to find out that he was in the Prancing Pony Inn, but that was a secondary priority. For now, he had to act accordingly to that news that the Romanian vampire had just generously supplied him.

"I'll contact you again later," was all Kuroro told him before he hang up rather rudely and turned to address his Spiders. "Hisoka is coming this way."

"WHAT?" Nobunaga roared, while some of the Spiders tensed up.

"Should we finish him up now, Danchou? He's being a pain in the ass, seriously." Phinks said while flexing his knuckles.

"Hisoka…My brother told me not to mess with him." Kalluto muttered to himself softly.

"No. It is too risky to fight with Hisoka here. Our first priority is not to make him suspicious of this place. For now, the meeting is concluded. Disperse and take care not to alert Hisoka of your presence."

"What about you, Danchou?" Nobu asked worriedly; not unlike some goody-goody wife seeing off her husband (gross as it might sound).

"I will handle Hisoka." Again, there was the finality in his tone that said that he did not want another word from them concerning the topic. "You are all dismissed."

With that, the Spiders nodded and all disappeared from the inn immediately. Even Shalnark had gone away as well. Kuroro was satisfied with how his Spiders were ever efficient with whatever orders were given to them. It also seemed that Heen was responding well as one of the Spiders. Kuroro was inclined to think that some of the Spiders; probably Machi and Shalnark, had briefed him in details in how the Spiders operate. That saved a lot of troubles for him.

Going into his Zetsu state, Kuroro began ascending the staircase to the upper floor.

* * *

The first thing that Fino did when Kurapika had locked themselves up in one of the rooms in the second floor—to be precise, it was the room that had been used by Kurapika and Kuroro to store the Scarlet Eyes years ago—was, of all things, to ramble about how things should be done, especially between her and Kuroro. It included things regarding how they should furnish Kurapika's house now that there would be another permanent occupant (as Fino insisted on calling it so) in that small house.

"And no sleeping in separate rooms! That's a disgrace! A sacrilege!" She cried out in an anguished manner while throwing her arms up the heavens. The two of them were sitting on the queen-sized bed, while Meta was telling Bia all sorts of things about the inn.

"Fino, you are overacting." Kurapika deadpanned, wondering why Fino was such a drama queen.

"NO! I'm speaking on behalf of Meta!"

"Right…" Kurapika rolled her eyes. "Of course you were."

"You are a meanie, Kurapika." Fino said while pursing her lips, crossed her arms and spun on her heels, pretending that she was mad with the Kuruta.

It happened that Meta was sitting on the floor talking—or rather, rambling—to Bia, while Bia herself was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the innkeeper's daughter with her wide hazel eyes. Her face was like a sculpted ice statue, but there was a glint of curiosity in those eyes. Curious herself, Fino scooted closer to her until she was next to white-haired girl. She then stroked the girl's wavy hair and was delighted to feel how light and soft those white strands of hair were.

"What's the story with this kid? How did she end up following you guys?" Fino asked; she had completely forgotten that she had intended to act pissed-off at Kurapika.

"Oh. Well…" Kurapika then began telling her about the Bensalem incident, about how they met Heen and about how Bia was confined to the tank. Of course she skipped about the part where Kuroro murdered the people inside that floating fortress, and about how the Spider Head had literally turned Heen's body into beehive in his rare occasion of blind rage.

"Heee… So Bia here is Heen's sister? They don't look alike! Ok, maybe the skin tone does look similar." Fino drawled as she twirled the mute girl's white hair with her fingers. "But to think that you would have forgotten all about me and Meta if that brainwashing thing had really happened…" Fino almost fainted when Kurapika had touched on that subject.

"Well, it didn't happen." Kurapika shrugged carelessly.

Fino narrowed her eyes slightly and there was a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Oh? Now you start speaking like _someone_ here." Fino actually gave off a rather evil giggles here.

"What?" Kurapika cringed in slight disgust at this; but whether it was heartfelt or merely a reflex remained an unanswered question, because suddenly the door to their room was opened.

Both Fino and Kurapika turned their attention to the said door, only to see Kuroro sauntering into their room and closing the door behind him with an almost inaudible click. Kurapika frowned when she saw him; why was he in Zetsu state?

"You are done with the meeting?" Kurapika checked her wristwatch. "That is unexpectedly fast."

"I never thought you'd be so concerned about Ryodan's activities, Kurapika." Kuroro said with a teasing smirk; which was countered with a glare from Kurapika. "Anyway, the meeting was ended abruptly."

"Because?" Kurapika narrowed her eyes; she knew it could not be a good thing.

"Hisoka is coming this way." Kuroro said calmly. "Turn to your Zetsu state, Kurapika. Bia, you too."

Kurapika obediently turned to her Zetsu state, and Bia did as well with a nod of her head.

"You take it for granted that she knows how to go into Zetsu state, or you know that as a fact all along?" Kurapika questioned him.

"You told me that Heen taught her Nen briefly. I consider Heen as a pragmatic and practical person, so I figure that he would have taught her at least Zetsu and Gyo." Kuroro said while pocketing his hands into his pockets and smirking smugly at her.

Kurapika clucked her tongue in annoyance at Kuroro's know-it-all attitude. Kuroro, however, soon turned his attention to Fino. The girl had surprisingly turned into Zetsu state as well.

"So you have learned Nen then." Kuroro said, stating the obvious.

"Yep!" Fino flashed a 'V' sign with her fingers.

"Speaking of Nen…" Kurapika suddenly looked as if she had just remembered something she had wanted to discuss before. "Fino, did you use your Nen on the Spiders? Considering that the inn is still perfectly intact and largely unscathed…"

"You bet. Nobunaga and Heen almost broke into fight here, and I couldn't afford that, could I?" Fino said with a very wide grin.

"And none of them noticed?" Kurapika raised an eyebrow.

"Hm…I don't know. They never said anything about it. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't." Fino laughed while waving her hand in a dismissive manner.

"Huh. So your Spiders can be pretty dull also." Kurapika said rather triumphantly to Kuroro.

"Let's see." Kuroro covered his mouth with his hand, and essentially ignoring Kurapika's remark. "From what she said just now, it seems that she managed to subdue the hot-tempered Nobunaga effortlessly—which is something that I have to applaud of—and Heen as well, using her Nen. Which means, her Nen is probably the kind that can affect people's mind or senses in a very subtle way, if they didn't notice it. I don't think they noticed it. So it will be the Manipulation type. Judging from the faint scent lingering in the dining hall, her medium will be sense of smell."

Kuroro then turned to give Kurapika a how-accurate-is-my-deduction look—which pissed Kurapika off because he completely hit the bull's eye. She tsch-ed irritably while Fino, on the other hand, was clapping her hands vigorously with a look of astonishment on her face.

"Bingo!" She exclaimed merrily. "Although it's more like I can influence their moods rather than thoughts."

"And usually it's according to your own moods, right? I remember the time when you were depressed and the whole inn felt like the next day would be Doom's Day." Kurapika said, smiling as she remembered the earlier days when Fino was still learning the basics of Nen and maturing her Hatsu.

Meta suddenly interrupted their conversation as he tugged at Fino's sleeves.

"Finooo, I'm hungry." He complained as he laid his other hand on his rumbling stomach.

"Oops, we can't have that." Fino bent down and ruffled his golden hair. "So let's go down to the kitchen and get you something to eat. Bia, are you coming?"

Bia nodded and her eyes lit up briefly. She hopped from the edge of the bed and caught up with Fino and Meta as they walked to the door. Kurapika sighed discreetly as she looked at them walking together before they closed the door behind them, and heard them chattering livelily as they walked down the staircase. Kuroro approached her until he was standing in front of her.

"Then," he leaned forward so that his face was a few inches away from hers, "what's my reward for getting it right?"

"I never promised any rewards!" She pushed him by his chest, and he simply chuckled at it.

"So you really did teach her Nen."

"That's the only thing I could do to compensate for all troubles I have been putting her in." Kurapika said lightly.

"Hmm…" Kuroro vaguely hummed as he walked towards the window and stood near the curtain, so that he would be obscured from vision from outside the inn. He scanned the streets outside the inn, and there was no sign of anyone nearby. Kurapika chose to observe him; particularly his eyes. She had learned since years ago to read things from his eyes and largely ignored his mask of indifference. This time, the only thing she could read from those obsidian-like eyes was: observation.

After a while, she lay on the bed on her stomach and crossed her arms on top the bed sheet. She then began questioning Kuroro about certain things.

"Why didn't you tell Fino to be quiet, if Hisoka is coming this way? You know she can be pretty loud."

"From what Shalnark has occasionally told me about her, she can be prudent when situation requires it. I believe she understands the situation now, although I doubt that she knows Hisoka. Evidence is, she went into Zetsu state without being asked to."

"So you choose to believe in her." It was more like a question than a statement.

"You can say so." Kuroro answered without averting her eyes from the streets outside.

"And if, say, Hisoka noticed us here because of the noises she made?"

"Then we'll just have to deal with it when the time comes. However, I don't think that will happen." Kuroro decided that the streets were safe enough and turned to face Kurapika.

"And why the confidence?"

"Because Lucian is in this town. He was the one who told me about Hisoka being in this town and heading towards this inn."

Kurapika cocked her head sideways in confusion.

"And what does that have to do with Hisoka not noticing us here?"

"In the first place, Hisoka won't even reach this place." Kuroro chuckled. "Because Lucian is such a meddling fool."

Kurapika could only blink in worse bewilderment and was slack-jawed, and at the same time Kuroro's cell phone rang. There was a message coming from a certain person who was in really deep shit.

* * *

He had intended to simply pay a visit, he swore in his father's name.

Anansi had generously dropped him a message that Kuroro Lucifer's group was coming back to that Prancing Pony Inn, and since he was bored halfway to death in his mansion, he decided to kill time by visiting them. Alas, things were never smooth for him. When he got back home, perhaps he should asked his father about what kind of star he had been born under—or rather, which star of disaster and bad luck.

The moment he had reached the remote town smack in the middle of mountain, he had visited the nearest café of some kind since he was simply craving for a cool drink. When he was still in the middle of chilling out, his eyes caught something at a distance. Granted that his eyesight was not the best during the day because he was essentially a nocturnal creature, but with that kind of colour and that kind of shape for a hair, even a blind would not miss that man. Not to mention the ridiculous attire…

"_Lucian, if you see this person, you should avoid him the best you can. He's the type who's always hungry for a fight, and he has keen sense when it comes to determining whether someone is a worthy opponent or not," _was what Kuroro Lucifer had told him once in the past.

The appearance of the man he had spotted from the café had perfectly fitted the bill of description that Kuroro Lucifer had given him but for a moment Lucian had forgotten that; since the man in outrageous jester outfit was walking towards a direction that currently hosted about the entire Genei Ryodan. Imagining that it would be beyond disastrous for the inn if the fighting-maniac clown found out about the presence of the Spiders, Lucian decided to tell Kuroro about him.

However, Lucian thought that it was not enough.

_If what Lucifer told me is true, then even if they all go into Zetsu state, he'll still be able to sense them inside the inn. Not to mention that they all reek of blood and death and whatnots_, was what Lucian had thought the moment he had informed Kuroro about Hisoka.

Thus, Lucian decided to take a shortcut to the inn, and walked intentionally from the direction of the inn so that he would bump into the clown halfway before the latter could even get a glimpse of the inn. The plan did work as he intended, but the end result had been radically different from what he had in mind.

"Hey, there. Are you, by any chance, going to the inn there?" Lucian casually asked Hisoka while pointing to the direction of the said inn.

"Hm~? So there's an inn over there?" Hisoka had responded in a fairly normal manner. That had made Lucian breathe rather easily. Oh, how wrong he was.

"Yeah. I was thinking of going there also, but the inn's closed. Nobody's at home. Seems like the owner is on vacation or something the likes." He shrugged as carelessly as possible.

"Aw, that's no fun at all~~"

Okay, Lucian decided that he did not like this weirdo at all, at least not his slurry way of talking. It was downright creepy.

"Yeah. Too bad. Well, see you around then." Lucian walked past him and waved a carefree goodbye, thinking that he was safely past a walking bomb.

Again, he was erroneous in his judgement.

"Oh well~~ I guess I'll just play with you~" A devilish smirk graced Hisoka's pale face.

"_Spune ce?_ (say what)" Lucian's voice betrayed his nervousness, as his tone was more like that of a squashed mouse.

"Hmm~~? From your tone, it seems that you do know me~" Hisoka had turned to face him and between his fingers were his beloved cards that he always used as execution tools. "Who are you~?"

"Uh…" Lucian backed away as stealthily as possible but it did not seem that it would do him anything good at all, considering the bloodthirsty look on the jester's face. "Well… I'm just an innocent, ignorant passer-by?"

Hisoka's crazed grin turned into a Glasgow grin.

"Liiies~~" And he threw his cards at him.

"_CE PULA MEA!_ (what the fuck)" He screamed rather girlishly as he barely dodged those lethal cards.

"Oh, not bad, not bad at all~~" Hisoka giggled as he produced yet another set of cards.

"My God! The hell was that for?" He yelled in indignation while waving a fist at the mad jester.

"I told you that I'm going to play with you, didn't I?" Hisoka said while juggling his cards with complete ease.

"Oooh, shit, man." Lucian took deliberate steps backwards as Hisoka took a step forwards towards him.

"My, my, you are so, so deliciously ripe~~" Hisoka purred as he licked one of his cards.

That was it! Deciding that he could not take it anymore, Lucian turned tail and without anymore reserve ran for his life towards the forest as if he was being chased by the Devil himself. He even tapped on his vampire ability to run beyond normal; which he never did unless for emergency. Well, this was one hell of an emergency for sure. At least he still had the common sense not to go to the direction of the inn, otherwise his effort of undertaking the risk of rousing Hisoka into fighting mode—and actually got busted in the process—would be for naught.

Unfortunately, his vampire abilities were curtailed by the presence of sunlight, and he could hear the mad jester coming after him due to the creepy maniacal laugh of a positively insane man coming from behind him. His nerves were wracking, but still he could fish out his cell phone out of his pockets.

_La naiba_ (dammit), _Lucifer. You owe me BIG time for this! Shit, shit, shit! _Lucian thought furiously as he typed on his cell phone while trying to outrun a certain battle-hungry mad jester.

* * *

_**Sender: **__Lucian_

_**Message: **__Odata ce__scap de acest__fiu__de__catea__,__sunteţi atât de__gând__să plătească__pentru__taxa de despăgubire__.__MAI BINE__FACI__!_

Kurapika narrowed her eyes as she read the message from Kuroro's cell phone. She was still lying on her stomach on the bed, while Kuroro was sitting on the edge of the bed; observing her expression silently.

"And what does this mean?"

"Literal translation is: 'Once I get rid of this son of a bitch, you are so going to pay for compensation fee. You better do.'" Kuroro said with a chuckle of amusement.

"Can he really get rid of Hisoka that easily?" Kurapika asked sceptically as she re-read the message.

"Well, depends on the timing. At this hour of day, his strength is reduced to only a quarter of his original capacity. If he can hold out until twilight, then he is clear."

"Hmm…" She rolled so that now she lay on her back. She stared at the ceiling with her oceanic blue eyes, thinking about Lucian's message and Kuroro's comment earlier.

"To think that I did tell him once in the past that he should avoid Hisoka." Kuroro sighed and shook his head dramatically. "Although even if Hisoka is his opponent, he won't die. He's more like a cockroach than a vampire."

"Too true." Kurapika chuckled. "Then, who's the stronger one between you two, when Lucian fights at full-strength?" Kurapika turned her head to look at him.

"Who knows? We never fought. Oh, wait." Kuroro frowned slightly as he tried to recall the past events with Lucian. "We did fight at one time. It was sometime after our first meeting, if my memory serves me right."

"And?"

"We didn't get to finish the fight."

"How come?"

Kuroro grinned at her. "Time limit. At that time, he had yet to invent that special sun-block of his."

Kurapika suddenly laughed out loud. Seeing her in this rare occasion, Kuroro decided to simply look at her contentedly.

"The idiot. Then? Did he get burned and turn into ashes or what?"

"Oh, I decided to save his hide, and hence the big favour. Had I not helped him, he would've died for real at that time."

Kurapika then remembered distantly that during her first meeting with Lucian in one of Abelard Constantin's parties that Kuroro had mentioned about 'favour' and Lucian had been completely embarrassed about that topic. So this was the big 'favour'?

"So now with his special sun-block, he's practically invincible?" Kurapika asked with a light humoured smile.

"Perhaps. We'll see when he comes back after this scuffle with Hisoka."

"You are so sure that he'll come back."

"Twilight is coming in a few more hours more. Like I told you, he is more like a cockroach. Cockroach is said to be a species that will never get extinct until the end of the world. Lucian will survive." Kuroro chuckled.

True enough, the sky outside had turned slightly orangey as evening was in its way to turn into twilight. Seeing the reddish tint of the sky, Kurapika was fleetingly reminded of the time in the Kuruta Village six years ago when they had parted ways. She had no idea why she remembered that now, of all time, but for some reasons this time it gave a pleasant feeling. They remained that way for a while; with her looking upside-down absently at the reddening sky outside, and with Kuroro sitting on the edge of the bed looking at the same scenery as she did as he put his elbows on his laps.

Perhaps time had stretched for a few minutes, or perhaps it had stretched for an hour; none of them knew as they did not keep track of time. The long yet comfortable silence was then broken by Kurapika's words.

"So, what are we going to do now?" She absentmindedly asked him.

"Maybe we should wait until Lucian comes here and hear what he has to say."

"He's going to nag and complain at you like tomorrow's Judgment Day."

"Let him do so. He deserves it, after the troubles he is going through right now with Hisoka."

"Does he do this often? Getting into troubles because he's trying to help you without being asked to?"

"Hmm…" Kuroro lay down on the bed so that his head was next to Kurapika's head on different direction. "I suppose. I never counted."

"Because you never bother to. Typical of you." Kurapika said with an 'hmph', and then shifted so that her face loomed over his with her elbows supporting her upper body. "You should count your blessings, Kuroro. Don't take things for granted."

Kurapika then moved away as she tried to get up, but an arm suddenly snaked its way around her shoulders and pulled her backwards. She was slammed to the soft bed not roughly, and she found Kuroro looming over her with his hands next to her shoulders; their role reversed. Kuroro had positioned himself so that he was looking at her face straight and not upside-down.

"What? You disagree with me?" Kurapika asked defensively, her tone a tad bit too rough.

Kuroro chuckled at her attitude, and then lowered his head so that their noses were only an inch apart.

"No." He said huskily, and then he lowered his head further until his lips were just next to her ear. "In fact, I havestarted counting my blessings since _six years_ ago."

Kurapika shuddered lightly when she felt the soft, hot breath brushing against her sensitive ears, and fortunately (for her) she did not let out any embarrassing noises of any kind. Kuroro drew back and grinned when he noticed how flustered Kurapika looked like.

"I, I guess it's better late than never…" She said unevenly, trying to cover her sudden nervousness but was doing a very bad job at that.

"True." He chuckled.

Kurapika suddenly frowned. _What the hell…_She thought. Why was she acting like a blushing virgin now? She then raised both hands and cupped Kuroro's face in those hands.

"You want your reward, right?" She asked him with low voice, and there was a smile on her face that looked more like a conniving smile than anything else.

Without waiting for his response, Kurapika pulled his face closer to hers and closed the gap by pressing her lips against his. Kuroro was rigid for a millisecond, before he quickly sresponded to her kiss. It was not a lustful kiss, yet it was not a childish, innocent kiss either.

Kurapika's hands moved from his cheeks and her arms snaked their way to embrace his neck. His elbows touched the bed sheet and he combed her golden hair with one hand as she leaned towards him.

Outside, the red sky had dimmed and the world hovered between light and darkness. The last bit of sun rays penetrated through a certain window of the inn, casting a weak light on the silhouette of figure on the bed.

The curtain of night then descended.

* * *

Crickets sang their lullaby as night reached its peak and its darkness thickened. Fireflies sprung to life and wandered to enjoy what little life they had. Some of the curious ones landed on what they thought was a white lump, but was none other than the body of a young unicorn.

Una was sleeping peacefully, resting after a long ride to reach this town. She had never been a heavy sleeper, but with the presence of her father—who was undoubtedly strong, with a demon literally inside him—by her side, she could not help but to be at utter peace.

Bara, on the other hand, was roused from his rest as he felt a new presence coming. He raised his black head and looked around in mild alert. The newcomer did not bear ill intention; that much was clear to him. After a while, he managed to discern the location of the newcomer, because that newcomer had been muttering loudly in a language that Bara was not familiar with. Even when he did not understand the language, he knew that that person was cursing so much that Buddha's ears might bleed from it.

The black unicorn decided to wait until the newcomer appeared within his line of vision. In the next second, his wish was granted as a man wearing black pants and black vest with white shirt underneath stumbled from among nearby bushes. It was important to point out that his outfit was no longer whole or intact. There were a lot of cuts all over his person, and the front of his shirt was stained heavy with fresh blood.

"_Nenorocita aia de nemernic…_(that fucking asshole) _Ar fi trebuit să__-l__supt__uscat__ca o__mumie mizerabil__…_(should've sucked him dry like a God-forsaken mummy)" The man with jet-black hair muttered vehemently under his breath as he brushed away the dry leaves on his shoulders and pants.

It was rare for Lucian to swear so heavily, but this occasion of getting hunted down by Hisoka was by no means an everyday happening. In fact, perhaps it was the scariest experience he had ever had in his entire life so far—well, except for those lifetime traumatising experiences by the hands of those blasted Solomonarii witches in his father's domicile.

"_Poate că__ar trebui__sa__-l__sperii__semnat__pentru__o intervenţie chirurgicală__lobotomie__._ (maybe I should freaking get him signed up for a lobotomy surgery) _Acest__nemernic__este__dincolo de__nebun_! (this asshole is beyond insane)" He spat as he stared at his trashed attire with forlorn look in his grey eyes. "_Hau…Acolo se duce costumul meu cel mai bun…_(oh…there goes my best suit)"

_Hey,_ Bara called out at him with low voice, so as not to disturb his sleeping daughter.

"_ISUS HRISTOS!_ (Jesus Christ)" Lucian jumped out in surprise while clutching his chest just above where his heart supposedly lay. Actually, he was not even sure himself if his heart was really beating.

_Pipe down, will you? You keep making so much noise like a frenzied elephant,_ Bara scoffed as he cringed upon hearing Lucian's scream.

"What the…A black unicorn? Here?" Lucian blinked in surprised as he surveyed the mysterious creature sitting leisurely on the grass in front of him. He then noticed another horse next to the black one. "Why's Una with you?"

_Oh? So you know my daughter? Meaning you are acquaintance of Kuroro-lad and his woman_, Bara stated while raising an 'eyebrow'.

"Kuroro-lad?" Lucian then laughed out loud. "That's a cute nickname. Yeah, I'm their friend. You're Una's father then. What's the name again? Bara?"

_That's me. Why are you here? In the first place, why do you look like shit while cursing to high heaven like there's no tomorrow?_ Bara's body relaxed as soon as he knew that this ridiculous man was no threat at all. Perhaps he could serve as an entertainment, even.

"That's none of your business." Lucian said while cringing. "Are they in town?"

_Guess so,_ the black unicorn 'shrugged'.

"Good. I'm so going to make them pay for reparation fee of my suit." Lucian muttered again as he turned to walk towards the inn; which was barely visible at a distance.

_Before you waltz in to the inn, I suggest you clean your face first,_ Bara told him with rather bored tone.

"Shit. Forgot." Lucian then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, to clean the smears of blood around his mouth. If Kurapika was to see it, she would interrogate him until she got every last bit of information out of his system—and it was never a pleasant thing to anticipate.

_You're no human, aren't you?_ Bara casually asked; as if he did not bother if he did not get an answer for it.

He was quite confident that his guess of the man's true nature was correct, because not only that the blood around his mouth was self-explanatory, but his blood had no human smell. It smelled of decay and death. Not to mention that those glassy grey eyes were no human's eyes, although there were myriad of strong emotions playing in them, while he heard that vampires usually had eyes like a dead fish's. What almost made him unsure was the fact that Lucian's face had a healthy tint of pink at the moment—which was to be attributed to fact that he had just fed _a bit_—while vampire usually had paraffin white skin.

"Nah. I'm a full-fledged vampire." Lucian answered as he wiped his hand on some broad leaves of a tree. "And you're no ordinary unicorn, aren't you? With all those black body and black horn and everything."

_Nope. I have a demon sealed inside of me. Pretty gross, no?_ Bara snickered at his own words.

"Demon? _Păi_ (well), not pretty, that's for sure. I'm surprised that it's possible, to put a demon inside a unicorn." Lucian commented; and he was true to his words—he was indeed surprised to hear such thing.

_The concept is the same as that Solomon Ring. It's just like how that ring's creator welded those mightier-than-thou demons inside that brass ring,_ Bara explained while yawning.

"Hmm…I see. Interesting." He nodded contemplatively. "Well then, I gotta go and bug them. See you sometime later." Lucian turned around and waved a goodbye at him from over his shoulder.

Bara looked on as he observed the vampire walking down the destroyed path—courtesy to Heen and Nobunaga—towards the Prancing Pony Inn. After a while, once Lucian was out of earshot, Bara shook his head in disbelief.

_Does he not feel that piece of poker card sticking on his back like sore thumb?_

* * *

"You look like tattered rag." Kurapika stated flatly.

"Gee, thanks for the compliment, Kurapika." Lucian rolled his eyes.

When he had entered the inn, Kurapika had been sitting in the living room with a cup of warm tea before her and with newspaper in her hands. She had looked up when he stepped into the inn, and had raised her eyebrow quizzically as she took in his haggard appearance. When Fino saw him, she was mortified to see him in such sorry state and so she ran to the back room to get him a proper wear.

"What's with all those blood?" She asked while narrowing her eyes. "Did you suck Hisoka's blood dry or what?"

"_Prea bine_… (well) I did drink his blood but not until he's mummy-dry, though. Maybe I should have."

"Oh. I thought you've guzzled his blood like it's tap water." Kurapika then returned to her newspaper. She vaguely wondered if the world would be a slightly better one without Hisoka around; but then she dismissed that thought as soon as it had come. It was a pointless, silly musing.

Lucian narrowed his eyes and regarded her with a suspicious look.

"I never knew that you have that kind of sadistic, grotesque streak. I misjudge you, Kurapika."

"Whatever." She said with a sniff.

"By the by, where's Lucifer?" He asked as he looked around the empty inn. It was strange to see the inn so quiet.

"Baby-sitting." Kurapika answered deadpan.

"He WHAT?"

"As if." Kurapika rolled her eyes but smiled in good humour. "He's on phone call with someone."

"Who?"

"Who knows? He didn't tell me."

"And you didn't ask?"

"What for? That's his business. He'll tell me if he needs to." Kurapika shrugged and drank her tea that was prepared by Fino.

"Dear Lord, a few weeks together and you two are already goody-goody perfect couple." Kurapika shot him a deadly glare of one-more-word-and-you'd-wish-Hisoka-had-killed-you-back-then, and Lucian quickly rectified his words while putting up his hands in surrendering gesture. "Okay, my bad, Ma'am. It's the same ol' golden rule: 'Mind Your Own Business'."

There was the sound of a door being opened, followed by two sets of footsteps. One was slightly thunderous as Fino rushed to Lucian to give him a new set of shirt and pants, and the other one was rather soft and almost inaudible.

"Thank you, dear lady."

Lucian playfully winked at Fino as he took the articles of clothing from her hands. Fino responded with a light laugh and smacked him on his arms, making the vampire winced from the pain as she had involuntarily smacked his open cuts beneath his tattered shirt. Kurapika saw this and snickered. Suddenly, Lucian felt a grab on his leg and when he looked down, he was looking at a pair of big hazel orbs.

"Hey there, little princess. How are you doing?" Lucian had to squat down so that he was eye-level with the white-haired girl. He then began checking her as how he used to do when he was still her personal physician back then in his country, Muntenia. "Mmhm, mommy and daddy take good care of you, yes? You're not as anorexic-skinny as before, I see. Good, good. What else?"

Bia suddenly gave him a small smile. Seeing this, Lucian's eyes widened exponentially.

"_Domnul meu!_ (my Lord) Is that a smile? Is that a smile I'm seeing here?"

"She's still improving, bits by bits." Kurapika told him, with a soft smile of her own playing on her face.

"This is already superb!" Lucian then pinched her cheeks lightly. "Right, Bia?"

Bia blinked, but she imitated Lucian's antics and pinched his cheeks in return. Fino; who was observing from the sideline, was almost melting ("Aw, so cute!")

"If you like her so much, why don't you take her in? From the way I see it, you are already like a doting parent to her." A new voice came, and there was a new set of footsteps walking into the living room.

Even without looking at the newcomer, Lucian knew who it was.

"No, no. I'm only Bia's personal physician. Bia only has one daddy, right?" Lucian asked with a grin.

Bia nodded while her fingers were still playing with Lucian's seemingly elastic cheeks.

"See? Give it up, Lucifer."

"_Mă rog_ (whatever)" Kuroro replied while taking a seat near Kurapika.

He then turned to Kurapika; who was already staring at him with rather perplexed stare. She still could not figure out Kuroro when it came to Bia; at times he would seem like he could give her up to someone else readily when given the chance, but at the same time he was perfectly fine with having her in the 'family' as well. How odd.

Ignoring Kurapika's stare, Kuroro told her of the phone call: "Abelard Constantin called. He said he's having a party next week and he's inviting _us_."

Kurapika cringed when she heard the word 'party'.

"I'll pass." Kurapika declared on the spot. "I've had enough with parties."

"He insists."

"I'll call Chairman Netero and have him arrange my schedule so that I'll be busy next week." She deadpanned.

"I thought so." Kuroro chuckled, and turned his attention to Lucian—who was still playing with Bia. Only then he realised something odd about the vampire. "I see that you've brought souvenir from your date with Hisoka."

"A what?"

Fino; who happened to be standing nearest to Lucian, bent down so that she could taka a closer look at his back—which Kuroro was looking at—and she frowned deeply.

"A poker card? Why is it sticking on your back?"

"_Rahat…_(shit)" Lucian ducked his head low. He had not felt the card at all.

The moment he did that, Bia let go of her hold on his cheeks. At the same time, she saw that piece of card sticking on Lucian's upper back. Curious as a cat, Bia stretched a hand and actually managed to reach that card. Without a word whatsoever, she plucked the said card out of Lucian's back, eliciting a yelp from the vampire.

The card that Bia had just extracted had bloodstain on one corner; where it had been embedded on Lucian's flesh, but the colour of the blood was black instead of red. With her impassive face, Bia raised up the card in her hands and began staring at it as if it was the most intriguing object on earth.

Lucian began muttering some strings of colourful combinations of curses and profanities in Romanian, and Kuroro happened to catch phrases like 'damn bastard' and 'should've sucked him dry' and things along that line. Seeing the bloodstain on his front shirt, Kuroro decided to question him.

"Did you drink his blood?"

"_Da…_ (yeah)" He then raised his hand and made a pinching gesture with his index finger and thumb. "_Un pic…_(a bit)"

"I thought the urban legend says that whoever gets bitten by vampire will turn into vampire?" Kurapika asked.

At this, Lucian looked up and gave Kurapika a dirty look

"Pfft! Give me a break. As if I'd want a psychotic like him as my underling. No way in hell. Over my dead body."

"So it's just that, after all. A legend?" Kuroro asked.

"You bet. Stupid legend sounds as if we're the gods of plagues. We do paralyze our victims when we bite, though. But honestly, he's one crazy dude, I'm telling you." And then Lucian began rambling and complaining about his fight with Hisoka.

Halfway through, Kurapika had to urge Fino to take Bia to her bed since she knew that the story would get too bloody as it progressed.

All in all, it comprised mostly of Lucian running away from Hisoka to bid his time until twilight came. When twilight finally came, only then Lucian dared to fight Hisoka head-on. Unfortunately for him, because he showed significant increase in his power, it fuelled Hisoka even more and the fight went downhill—in the sense that it got wilder to the worst.

There was a piece of truth that Lucian did not divulge to them; that was he almost lost control during the fight. In the heat of the fight, Lucian's bloodthirstiness had resurfaced by large extent due to his own blood being spilled—albeit not much. His eyes had turned red blood and he had almost bit through Hisoka's jugular veins in attempt to really drain him dry. Fortunately for Hisoka, Lucian had managed to get a grip of his self at the last moment and instead bit his shoulder—with inevitable gusto. His canines had paralyzing poison in it; like how a poisonous snake had poison gland inside their fangs, and so he knocked Hisoka out with one bite.

"You know," Kurapika turned to Kuroro, "I feel like I have missed a very interesting show."

"Ditto." Kuroro said with an amused expression.

"Dammit, you two. I'm not your entertainment!"

"You act like one."

"What the—! Lucifer, do something about your woman!"

Kurapika kicked his shin.

"See?"

"That's just the way she is." Kuroro shrugged without any care.

"_Trebuie sa fii misto de mine!_ (you gotta be kidding me)"

Unbeknownst to the three of them, a figure was perching on the tree branch just outside the inn. She held an oval mirror with antiquated frame in her arms; cradling it as if it was her baby. She listened to the voices from inside the inn with closed eyes, before she finally opened those exquisite eyes and looked into the mirror. Strangely, the mirror did not reflect her image but the image of another person with platinum blond hair and dark skin.

"A happy ending?" She seemed to ask the man inside the mirror.

_**It seems like it,**_he responded. _**Looks like there's nothing to be worried about.**_

"I did tell you so since the beginning. You just chose not to believe me, you worry-wart of a parent." She scoffed.

_**My bad, Scheherazade. A parent just has to make sure, you know?**_

"No, I know not." She rolled her eyes in indiscreet exasperation. "I have never once been a parent."

_**It's a whole new experience, parenthood is.**_

"Yes, yes, Anansi. Please do refrain from telling me to try being a parent. Parenthood never suits me."

_**You'll never know.**_

"Be silent. I am taking my leave now." Scheherazade said rather waspishly as she got up and leapt from the branch.

She was soon swallowed by the darkness of the forest; leaving behind only her delicate fragrance to linger fleetingly, as well as the soft twinkling of her bells that sounded so faint that one who heard it might think it came from a dream.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ Final chapter before Epilogue. Yeey yeey *bulldozer-ed by some readers* Aaanyway, that 'no sleeping in separate room' is taken directly from a reader's review; you know who you are =D _

_When it involves Lucian, I can't help but to include comedy in it. I guess Lucian and comedy come in a package. Poor him, getting targeted by Hisoka. Hisoka's appearance is by request of a reviewer. I didn't go into details about his fight with Lucian; I'll leave it to the readers' imagination._

_Ok, maybe that 'reward' part is a bit too cheesy romantic, but I kinda have this feeling that Kurapika's quite competitive…So yeah…_

_I tried to infuse a 'homey' feeling to this chapter to fit the title. What do you think?_

_Two questions: _

_1. Did I wrap up this chapter too cheesily?_

_2. What do you want to see in the epilogue?_

_**Next:**__ Things seem to have settled. But apparently, life was never normal for them in first place. Or, to be exact, what was the definition of normal life for their strange 'family' that seemingly consisted of 'stray' people?_


	28. Chapter 26: Nowadays

_**Disclaimer: **__Always belongs to Togashi-sensei…*depressed*_

_**Story so far: **__Everything seemed to have finally been resolved. How would the days go on in this peculiar 'family' full of stray characters aka oddballs, as well as the people around them? _

_**Author's Note: **__NOT EPILOGUE!_

* * *

**Chapter 26**

_**NOWADAYS**_

* * *

"I've seen him! I saw him with my own eyes, but he was just too quick! We couldn't catch up with him!"

"I never thought your dad is such a sore loser, Gon." Killua said with a sigh.

"Well at least now you know how to track him down. Next is to find out how to corner him so that he can't get away." Kurapika suggested.

Killua turned to her and frowned.

"I thought you'd say we should 'practice until we can outrun him', or something along that line." Killua said in a rather accusing tone.

"I'm not saying that it's impossible for you guys to do that, but President Netero said that Ging is one of the five strongest Nen-users in the world. It'll take years until you catch up with him. That is, if he has reached his limit of improvement."

"Ceh. You logic-freak." Killua pursed his lips unhappily.

"But we can always try to catch up with Ging. Right, Killua?"

"Yeah, yeah."

With how things had calmed down in Kurapika's life (somewhat), she managed to attend to her Hunter duty as how it had been before the whole fiasco that started with Meta's disappearance a few months ago. Currently, the three of them were walking out of one of the Hunters Association branch building after they had finished their respective missions, and it just happened that they finished at the same time.

"So, how's Leorio?" Kurapika asked, opening a new topic. She knew that Leorio had graduated from his medical school with flying colours; with _magna cum laude_, even.

"He's given in to Hosanna. Man, she sure is persistent." Killua shook his head while shrugging.

"So they are now officially in relationship?" Kurapika raised an eyebrow.

"Guess so."

"I heard she's applied to be a nurse in the hospital where Leorio's working." Gon chirped happily.

Kurapika laughed at this.

"Yeah, imagine that! I'll call that being a stalker! So now he'll have to put up with her everyday. Sucks to be him." Killua added.

Hosanna was a standard normal high-school girl who happened to be one of Leorio's patients. For one reason and another, she seemed to regard Leorio highly as a doctor. She even declared to Gon and Killua in their first meeting that Leorio had a charisma that she had never seen in any other doctors before. Of course Killua had laughed his head off at this. Oh, by the way, Hosanna had to see a lot of doctors not because she was sickly, but more because she was so reckless and such a klutz that she got into one accident after another.

After she had been discharged from the hospital where Leorio was working in, she kept coming back there; sick or not, to get a chance to see Doctor Leorio; which inevitably scared the crap out of poor Leorio. Initially.

She came by the hospital so often that Leorio gradually got used to her presence, and so did the other hospital staffs. Even more astonishing, she declared one day that she was going into medical school so that she could be a nurse to help Dr. Leorio with his works, though Leorio tried to convince her to do so for her own goodness. That was, so that she could fix herself up when she got into yet another accident.

The three of them; Kurapika, Gon, and Killua, knew that it was just a matter of time before those two tied the knots. They unanimously decided to play the role of the silent observers and waited until they received a certain invitation letter.

"Yosh. What're we gonna do now, Gon?" Killua nudged him on the shoulder.

"Hmm…" Gon frowned, pursed his lips, and looked up to the sky as he thought—it was becoming a habit of his that never seemed to die down. "Let's visit Aunt Mito! It's been months since the last time we went there."

"Alright!" Killua broke into a very huge grin.

Kurapika had heard that Killua liked to go visit Gon's aunt because (allegedly) he liked being there since he felt like he belonged there. Killua did hint one time that this Aunt Mito was more like his mother than his real mother was.

"What about you, Kurapika?" Gon turned to her. "Are you going back home?"

"Yeah… It's been two weeks."

"And the brats?" Killua asked with a kind of Cheshire Grin on his face.

"…Supposedly with Kuroro." At least Kuroro had been back a few days before she was called for this particular mission.

"At home?"

"By right."

"Why are you so uncertain about it?" Killua protested impatiently. "I thought you're always in control of things?"

Kurapika pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. They would never understand the situation at 'home'; with Kuroro Lucifer and his annoying unpredictability and whimsical actions—and the children's deliberate willingness to go along with whatever he was 'scheming'.

"Killua, this isn't about 'control'."

"Then what?" Killua crossed his arms defiantly.

'You'll know once you have your own family,' was what Kurapika originally intended to tell him waspishly, but she decided against it since she knew that the discussion would only go downhill. Instead, she tried another approach.

"Say, talking about Leorio and Hosanna, it reminds me…" Kurapika then flashed them a somewhat 'sinister' smile, "shouldn't you two be having a girlfriend by now. You'll be 21 this year, right?" _Oh my, time sure flies,_ Kurapika thought fleetingly.

At that, Killua stiffened—causing Kurapika to grin evilly when she saw this.

Ah, ah, ah. Jackpot~~

"Oh? What's this? You _are_ blushing like a maiden in love, Killua." She snickered.

"I am NOT blushing! And what's that crap with 'maiden in—"

"Actually," Gon intercepted with gleeful face, "there's this Killua's fangi—OOMPH!"

Before Gon could blurt out the (dreaded) word, Killua had gagged him with his hands and started to systematically drag him away from Kurapika. Gon tried to wriggle free, but when it came to raw power without the boost from Nen, Killua naturally still had the upper hands.

"Hey c'mon Gon, we still have to get souvenirs for Aunt Mito before we go, right, right?" Killua insisted as the corner of his mouth twitched somewhat nervously as he tried to get away.

Of course Kurapika could get herself involved; pry Gon out of the young Zaoldyck's hands and siphon whatever gossips out of his mouth. However, she was feeling rather generous despite Killua's earlier teasing, and so she let them get away easily.

"See you guys again!" She called out at them since they were already a good distance away from her.

Gon let out some incoherent mumblings that she supposed was "See you again sometimes, too! Take care!" Killua, on the other hand, was too busy escaping as if his behind was on fire. Kurapika grinned as she thought of the prospect of 'investigating' this (supposedly) fangirl of Killua. Not that she was a fan of gossiping, but if it was a wonderful material for teasing Killua ('blackmail', as he often dubbed it), she would not let it pass just like that.

Kurapika continued walking towards the local airport, when she realised that Gon had not answered her question regarding that girlfriend issue. However, knowing Gon (and his innate ability to charm older girls and women), she assumed it viable that there was already a line of queue for _older_ girls who wanted to be his girlfriend. She wanted to laugh out loud when imagining that.

* * *

"Hey, back from work?"

Kurapika turned around as she heard someone talking to her. The fruit vendor waved his hand vigorously at her with a bright grin plastered on his square face. He reminded her so much of Gon, only with more bulky and muscular body. He then beckoned at her to come closer; and she did.

"Yo, Kurapika. How're things goin'?" He leaned forward over his fruit counter and gave her a toothy grin. His voice was considerably lower and softer; as if he was gossiping about the couple next door.

"It's fine. How's your business?" She asked genuinely, not exactly for the sake of politeness.

There were people in the town who knew of her status and were trusted to keep her identity confidential. Chairman Netero had arranged it so that the words about her being the last surviving Kuruta would not get leaked out of the remote town; he would rather not take risks regarding that. Most of these confidants were influential people and people with broad networks who were trusty enough. This particular fruit vendor, for example, was a man of his words who would rather slit his own throat than to divulge a secret that he had sworn to keep.

"Fine and dandy. Shinnin' like a diamond." He laughed in a roar. "Here's a gift for yer kids at home."

The bulky man then passed her a bagful of peaches and apples.

"You don't have to—"

"Oh, but I want to, so save yer breath, girl. I ain't takin' that back. Now shoo! Go back home. Kids can't wait to have these fruits, y'know." He leaned forward and whispered to her, "Say hi to yer man for me, will ya?"

Before she could say anything about that, he had pushed her by her shoulders away. She stumbled to the streets, and the fruit vendor was already busy advertising his fruits ("Nice fruits! Sweet, crunchy, juicy! We got all ye ever want! Fruits for outrageously cheap prices!") as if he had not been talking to her just a few seconds ago.

Shaking her head, she resumed her original direction; which was to the Prancing Pony Inn instead of her own house.

Reaching the said inn, Kurapika entered the building from the back door since she was no longer a guest. She had to pass the inn's kitchen garden and could not help but to admire how green and fertile it was. Surprisingly enough, it was cultivated by Shalnark personally—a fact that she still found hard to digest even up until that very moment—with Fino as his assistant. Who would expect that a Spider could have such green fingers? Life was indeed full of surprises.

Ironic as it could be, though.

"Oh, hi dear. How are you?" It was Fino's mother whom she first saw when she opened the backdoor. She was in the middle of cooking whatever the guests had ordered.

"Hi, Auntie. I'm fine. Is Fino home?"

"Yes, she's in _that_ room, with Shalnark. I think they're meddling with something whatchamacallit. Fino bans us from entering that room. How rude! She said we're going to destroy everything inside there. Imagine that!" She threw her hands heavenward in exasperation.

Her being a neutral party, Kurapika decided not to give any comments about that and only laughed softly. The room that Fino's mother had been fussing about was actually a room which had been allotted for Shalnark, and it housed a lot of his electrical gadgets. To be honest, it was wise of Fino not to ban her parents from entering that room since they were the ignorant lot about modern technology in Shalnark's calibre.

"Oh, hey, Kurapika. It's been a while." The old innkeeper sauntered into the kitchen and raised a hand to greet her.

"Hi, Uncle. How are you, too?" Kurapika bowed slightly to him in courtesy.

"Fine. Just that this accounting book from Hell is still torturing me." He groused as he sat down on a kitchen chair with a weary sigh.

"Do you need my help?"

"Oh, I'd LOVE to, but Fino'll get mad at me if I ask you for help. You know she can be _really_ vicious about certain things." The innkeeper shook his head in dismay. "Oh yeah. Speaking of Fino, I think you're here for that girl. I just saw her and Shalnark running out of the house. Said they've got an errand or two to do. Dunno what they're up to."

"I wish they'll give me my grandchildren soon…" The wife sighed.

Kurapika then knew that this was her cue to excuse herself. Once Fino's mother started ranting about grandchildren and how about Shalnark and Fino were taking things slowly—"Engagement! Why don't they just get married straight away and give me my grandchildren?"—there would be no end of it, especially when Kurapika was present. She would go on about how to bring up children, about bad habits, etc.

"Well then, I'll take my leave now. I have this for you," Kurapika put down a package which has certain exotic food in it, "and this for Fino and Shalnark," she put down a small pouch that contained the seeds of some unusual plants she found around the site of the tribe she had been working with.

"Oh, you are so sweet, Kurapika~"

Before the two old couples could launch on another session of lectures and heartfelt gratitude, Kurapika had excused herself quickly yet politely, and made her way home.

* * *

He had sensed her coming back to the house; from the feel of her Nen, even when she was still a few metres away from the house itself. He smiled, and quickly turned into In state before she noticed it. It was interesting how—as he discovered based on his observation—that Kurapika had this tendency to be rather lax when she was at home, especially so when she knew that he was around. As such, the combination of her astounding reflex as an experienced Hunter with her laxness promised some entertaining results—and it made her a perfect victim of his strange pranks.

With effortless stealth, he stalked downstairs and saw her in the kitchen. It seemed that she was washing the fruits that she had—he guessed they were given by a particular fruit vendor he knew—and he stood sufficiently out of eyesight behind the kitchen door. When she turned her back to him, although it was only for a few millisecond it was enough time for him to sneak behind her.

As predicted, Kurapika immediately sensed the presence behind her and—as per dictated by her reflex—tried to elbow the (she supposed in the heat of the moment) interloper. However, her wrist was caught and with a twist over her head, she was turned on her heels—as if she was doing a twirl in a tango dance—and her arm was locked behind her own back. Her chest collided with something firm-yet-not-so-concrete. Her brain quickly registered this routine; and so veins throbbed on her temple and she growled.

"I'd really appreciate it if you stop this kind of silliness. What are you, a kid?" She groused as she looked up slightly and glared at the pair of obsidian eyes that were observing her expression with amusement.

"I'm a person who appreciates good entertainment." He replied with his trademark smirk that—none of them realised—Kuroro would only show to Kurapika.

"You incorrigible—"

"Mom and Dad are touchy touchy!"

Kurapika did not know whether to feel relieved that she was interrupted before she could utter the word 'bastard' since the children were there, or whether she should feel embarrassed to be caught in such compromising position by the same children. And what was with that 'touchy touchy'? Who on Earth taught them such words?

She tried to quickly wriggle herself out of his steely grip, but unfortunately his raw power was still slightly above hers without Nen. At the end, she resorted to stepping on his foot and grinded it. It did not hurt; in all honesty, but Kuroro relented and let her go with two hands raised in a surrendering gesture; complete with a smug smirk on his face. Kurapika gave him her characteristic you-are-annoying look before she turned to the children again.

"Did you behave yourselves?"

"Mmhmm! Uncle Phinks and his friends came over!" Meta announced, while Bia nodded to affirm his statement.

Kurapika frowned at this. Whenever that particular Spider was involved, nothing good ever came out of it.

"And then I beat the shit out of Nobunaga!"

Kurapika choked at something indefinite and she turned to give Kuroro a very nasty accusing glare. Kuroro quickly raised his hand to stop her from barrelling him with angry shouts yet. It was the 'let me explain first' gesture.

"Apparently, Phinks taught him some 'new words' while I was not around."

xXx

He was not surprised to see some of his Spiders near the house. He had been walking back from the Prancing Pony Inn; Shalnark had been updating him about news of the underworld, when he had sensed the Nen of some of his Spiders from several metres inside the forest near the house.

However, he did not know whether to be surprised to see Nobunaga and Phinks 'baby-sitting' Meta. The duty of baby-sitting Bia fell on Heen; although it seemed more like he was giving her lessons about electromagnetism so that she could make use of her Nen better. The others; namely Feitan and Machi, had chosen the audience role.

Well, at the very least they were _outside_ the house.

Judging from the surrounding; in which some thick branches that had been obviously cut down by Nobunaga, and several dents that suspiciously looked like it had been done by Phinks' fists, Kuroro had the general idea on what had been happening there. It went without saying that Meta was currently laughing his head off while dangling upside down with his ankles held by Phink's hands. Nobunaga, on the other hand, was seemingly scolding the boy while pinching his cheek.

"Oh, you're back!" Meta waved at Kuroro energetically.

"Oh. Uh. Hi, Danchou." Phinks and Nobunaga said in unison and with twitchy smile. Nobunaga withdrew his hand from the boy's puffy cheek in the fastest speed he could ever muster, while Phinks hastily put the boy down as gently as possible.

"Explanation?" Kuroro demanded with soft voice.

"Nobu said he wanted to meet your boy there." Heen called out from his spot with mischievous smirk playing on his dark olive-skinned visage.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S ALL EAGER TO SEE HER, YOU BASTARD!" Nobu roared at him, but his ears were glowing red.

"Oh yeah?" Heen countered back.

And they went into another verbal fight, with Bia looking at them with indifferent face—yet Kuroro knew that she was taking in all those colourful combination of words that they were exchanging. Meta approached Kuroro and tugged at his pants, and he beamed at Kuroro when he looked down at him.

"They are fun." He declared.

Kuroro raised an eyebrow at him and smiled. He bent on his knees so that he was eye-level with the boy that looked more and more like Kurapika.

"So who's your favourite one?" He asked while ruffling his soft golden hair.

"Uncle Phinks!" He exclaimed happily, and Kuroro chuckled at the 'uncle' part.

"Uncle?" Said uncle exclaimed in indignation.

The others laughed; Feitan sneered.

"And your least favourite?"

"Also Unce Phinks." He looked at him as innocent as an angel could be.

("What the hell? Make up your mind already, you damn kid!" roared Phinks)

"Why?"

"He's my least favourite because he looks ugly with no eyebrows."

Another roar of laughter filled the air.

"The boy has some guts, like the mother." Machi commented; though cold her tone was, there was amusement in her voice.

"But he is my favourite because he taught me new words."

Phinks gulped hard.

"New words?" Kuroro frowned. He had a feeling that he would not be too fond of these…new words that Phinks had generously taught him.

"Yeah, words like—"

"UWAAAAAAAAA—HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." Phink shouted and snatched the boy from his standing spot.

"Now, boy. That stays between us only." Phinks whispered at Meta furiously as he pressed his cheek to the boy's puffy cheeks, but the boy only blinked back at him; clueless about why most-favourite-yet-least-favourite-Uncle-Phinks was so agitated.

"Why?"

"Becauuseeee….." Phinks tried to look for a simple enough reason to convince the boy, but could not find any.

"Because Kurapika will murder him if she finds out." Kuroro finished for him with a chuckle.

Phinks groaned as if the physical torture had begun, but Meta only blinked at him innocently and kept asking 'why?' repeatedly while poking Phink's arm. Nobunaga and Feitan were still having fun laughing like there was no tomorrow.

"I won't do anything about you teaching him things, Phinks." Kuroro said coolly. "But do take consideration regarding the content of your 'teachings'."

"Yes Danchou…" The eyebrow-less man muttered in utter defeat. He then put his forehead on Meta's and mumbled, "See? It's all thanks to your loose mouth."

"Why?" Meta asked again as he was getting more and more confused.

"I'm dead meat after this." Phinks ignored the boy.

"Idiot." Nobunaga poked the back of his head gleefully.

"Let's prepare funeral for him." Machi chirped sadistically; quoting Franklin's words from back then when Phinks had gotten Kurapika's belongings lost in Ryuusei-gai.

xXx

"That ungodly man!" Kurapika exclaimed with a huff.

She turned around and was about to tell the children to 'forget whatever rubbish those ruffians and miscreants had been spewing', when she noticed something on them. When she finished scanning their appearances, she narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. The children; notably Meta, cringed visibly at this gesture.

Bia and Meta had emerged from the kitchen when they 'interrupted' Kuroro and his (annoying) prank on her, and evidently they had just raided the fridge for some snacks—and was not empty-handed. There were cookies crumbles on Meta's shirt, as well as traces of jam at the edge of Bia's mouth. Bia apparently noticed Kurapika's stare and frown at her, and so she quickly and guiltily licked the evidence away and grinned sheepishly.

"Well?" She questioned them ominously.

"Caught red-handed?" Kuroro commented the children.

Kurapika glared at him.

"Don't you dare giving them tips." She warned him.

"Okay, I won't."

"So you did intend to!"

While the two were busy bickering about denials, wicked (dubbed by Kurapika) intentions, assumptions, suspicions, logical reasoning, children's upbringing (a topic that Kuroro was not very keen on discussing about), and other topic that somehow became entangled with their daily portion of arguments, the children were wisely attempting to systematically retreat from 'crime scene'. That was by scooting their way inch by inch towards the door which was on the other side of the room. They were only a metre away from the said door—which would lead to the living room, which would lead to the front door, which would lead to the forest, which would mean that Kurapika would not be able to catch them to reprimand them for stealing snacks—when they were caught by Kurapika. Again.

"Hold it, you two!"

The two children froze—for only a second. The next instant, they bolted right to the door as if the room was on fire. Kurapika ran to the door to try to catch them, but Bia had used her electromagnetism Nen on the metal lock of the door. If she wanted to, Kurapika could use her Nen to break down the door and ran after them. Then again, that would be childish and besides the forest was the children's playground. They knew it like the back of their own hands; much better than Kurapika did.

So she gave up with a sigh and made a mental note to give them a _very_ thorough scolding.

Kuroro listened as they rushed out of the house towards the forest; mostly because of Meta's excited chatters and the sound of their footfalls on the hard ground outside the house. It was astonishing how Bia had been able to run around like a normal girl simply because Meta had been dragging her along wherever he went. Meta was always running, and so Bia pushed herself further so that she could soon catch up with him. Suffice to say that Lucian had been mortified when he found out that he had been beaten by a mere five-years-old in Bia's physical rehabilitation.

"You always let them have things their way, don't you?" Kurapika asked him with suspicion lacing her voice.

"Not exactly." Kuroro pocketed his hands and leaned on his left leg. "_That_," he was referring to discipline in everyday term; e.g. meal time, "is just not my department."

Kurapika crossed her arms and frowned at him.

"And what is your department, precisely?"

"You'll see."

Kurapika could see that he refused to elaborate further and his eyes were telling her that 'it was for you to find out'. Further prodding would be pointless, so Kurapika quickly gave up. She would not want to waste her breath for it.

"You are impossible." She rolled her eyes and walked past him towards the dining table.

She snatched her bag rather crossly from the table and rummaged through it. When she had found what she was looking for, she fished it out and passed it rather carelessly to Kuroro; knowing full well that he would flawlessly caught it. Not that her aim was bad, anyway. Kuroro looked at the object in his hand: an evidently old-bordering-ancient leather-bound book with the cover fading away, strapped neatly by a leather strip to prevent it from breaking apart when mishandled.

As Kuroro took the leather strip off and began flipping the yellowed pages of the book, Kurapika was already gathering her belongings from her trip and walked towards the staircase to the second floor.

"I assume this is my souvenir?" Kuroro asked as he kept flipping through the pages. It was a book about urban legends in a certain area; he deduced that Kurapika's latest Hunter duty had been on that particular area.

"Yeah. Whatever." Kurapika muttered tiredly as she kept on climbing the staircase, heading to _their_ bedroom. "I'm taking a nap. You're giving me a headache."

"Mmhm." Kuroro muttered vaguely with a thin smile, since his left eye tingled slightly when she uttered the last sentence—that was just an excuse.

His eyes suddenly caught something on one of the pages of the book, and he stopped to read the article fully. He then laughed out loud.

* * *

Evening came fast as the sky started to turn into its orangey hue. Kuroro was sitting in the living room, still reading the book that Kurapika had given him. When he heard the soft footsteps descending the staircase, he turned the pages in search of that particularly amusing article.

"They are still not back yet?" Came Kurapika's rather patchy voice.

"No," answered Kuroro, but Kurapika could detect the 'smile' in his voice—she could always do that—and she frowned at this.

"What are you scheming now?" She asked him while going to the kitchen to get a drink. Her throat was in desperate need of a cool drink.

"Nothing." There was no surprise in his voice at this accusation. "Have a look at this, Kurapika."

With a glass of water in one hand, Kurapika walked to the living room and stood behind the sofa where Kuroro was lounging. Kuroro passed him the book; which was opened on a certain page.

"Page 67, third paragraph." He instructed her. "And don't drink while reading it."

Kurapika raised an eyebrow at his last instruction, and her suspicion sky-rocketed. Nevertheless, she swallowed the drink before she started reading the article. It was basically an article about this local belief of a certain civilization.

…_Metatron_ (Kurapika raised both eyebrows at this) _is the patron of the Spirit Element _(both eyebrows rose)_. It is associated with unification, change, transformation, and infinity. Its colour is black and white_ (her eyes narrowed slightly), _and its symbol is black oval _(her eyes narrowed even more; 'this is getting familiar', she thought)_. Its animal is spiders—_

Kurapika coughed violently. Kuroro tried to smother his laugh.

"WHAT ON EARTH—"

"What a terrifying coincidence, no?" Kuroro said with very_ VERY _amused voice.

"Mortifying." Kurapika corrected jaggedly. "To think that I was the one who _named_ him…" She looked like she could faint on the spot.

"Well, let bygones be bygones." Kuroro shrugged as he retrieved the book from Kurapika's trembling hands.

"You obviously sound happy." Kurapika said unhappily.

"Do I?" He was still smiling.

"At least take a look at a mirror." She muttered irritably and rolled her eyes. "I think I should preoccupy myself to forget about that stupid article."

"I hope you fail." He said sincerely.

"Shut up."

So Kurapika went back upstairs to _her_ study room, leaving Kuroro to enjoy himself as he kept recalling the hilarious expression on Kurapika's face when she saw that bit of the article. The two of them had separate study rooms because not only that both of them valued privacy, but also because their occupations were different to the extreme that it would be ultimately disastrous if their documents were to get mixed.

For the next half an hour, Kuroro resumed his reading while Kurapika went to busy herself in attempt to discard that shocking piece of information out of her head. Suddenly, there was a knock from the front door. Kuroro looked up and stared at the door. He tried to sense who the guest was, and he recognised this presence. Suffice to say that he was not too keen to answer the door because this particular guest was not a very pleasant one. At least for him.

Nonetheless, he got up and opened the door—which revealed a short old man with a samurai ponytail on his balding head and a goatee that he kept on stroking lovingly.

"Hello, Kuroro Lucifer. I see that you are still as fresh as ever."

The usage of the word 'fresh' was rather disturbing, but if it affected the Spider Head he did a good job concealing it—not that it actually affected him, though.

"Chairman Netero of the Hunters Association. I'd assume that you have a business with Kurapika." Kuroro responded smoothly and he gestured at him to come inside the house.

"True, true. I have another mission for her to finish. She's too reliable for her own goodness sometimes. Don't you think so?" Netero asked as he sat on the sofa.

"Perhaps." Kuroro responded vaguely, and he remained standing. He was not too inclined on discussing about Kurapika with this strange-yet-powerful man. Suddenly, something popped in his mind.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead." Netero nodded like a peaceful grandfather.

"Why did you send Silva Zaoldyck to attack me back then in Yorkshin?" He had truly been curious about that. He had his guesses, but he would not miss the chance of hearing the exact answer directly from the mastermind.

"Ah. That's an old issue, but I'll answer you. Well, let's just say that I want to see if you have what it takes to handle Kurapika…" Netero lowered his voice dramatically, "…and the troubles she brings with her."

Kuroro smiled his business-smile.

"I'm not convinced." He stated; his voice smooth and trained.

"Oh, nothing more than that, honestly." Netero stroked his goatee good-naturedly.

Kuroro was not sure whether to trust this old man's words or not. He did hear from Kurapika that the chairman of the Hunters Association was rather peculiar (bordering senility, she had said) from time to times.

Suddenly, the front door was slammed open again, followed by two sets of thunderous footsteps that unmistakably belonged to two children.

"Dad! Where's Mom? We gotta show this to her!" So came Meta in his sugar-high excitement. So excited he was that he missed the presence of a stranger in the house.

Kuroro raised an eyebrow. He had his doubts that Kurapika would be delighted to see those…'things'…that the children were holding, but he said nothing of it.

"She is in the study room." He said while gesturing at the staircase.

"Okay! Let's go, Bia!"

With that, Meta dragged Bia—who had been staring curiously at the strange old man whom she had never seen before—along and they both disappeared behind the flight of stairs leading to the second floor. Both Kuroro and Netero looked at the excited children with amusement in their faces.

"Ten seconds until Kurapika blows off." Netero said while stroking his goatee expectantly.

"Eight seconds for me." Kuroro said as he raised a hand and observed the ticking second hand of his wrist watch. Seconds ticked by slowly.

Six… Seven… Eig—

"KURORO LUCIFER!"

The said man looked at Netero with smug face, and Netero sulked childishly. There were stomping sounds coming ominously from the staircase, and soon a very livid Kuruta reached the bottom of the staircase with a child in each hand. They were held up by their collars, but there was not a hint of regret in their playful faces. Kuroro regarded them with a twisted sense of pride. He then turned his attention to the seething mad blonde, who looked like she could maul down a Minotaur in her rage.

"Any problems?" He asked casually with hands shoved into the pockets of his pants, complete with that mischievous smirk on his face.

"HELL YES!" She dropped the children to their feet and charged at Kuroro. "Why didn't you stop them from storming into _my_ study room while bringing such a hideously HUGE SPIDERS? What if they escape and start breeding in the study room like there's no tomorrow?" She jabbed an accusing finger at his face, while he continued to maintain the entertained smile on his face. "Don't you dare say that it's for your amusement, you—Chairman Netero!"

"Lively as usual, Kurapika?" Netero grinned teasingly.

"I, I, I—This visit—I never heard—" She stuttered, clearly embarrassed for the earlier display of blatant (and admittedly childish) rage.

"There's a mission for you, Kurapika. And you're the only one who can do it perfectly!" Netero said with sudden excitement. "Come! We have no time to waste."

"B, but—"

"Pack up, pack up. Hurry, child!"

Kurapika then had no choice but to go to her room and packed up. She had not bothered to ask about the duration of the mission because if Netero told her that it was 'a mission that only she could do', then it had something to do with the 'save a tribe for extinction' missions. It could stretch for weeks to no end, but she had made a deal with Netero that she would not accept a mission that could stretch until months.

"Hello, children. Looks like you've had your fun with your mother, no?" Netero approached the children with innocent face of a good ol' man.

Meta pressed his body closed to Bia; suspicions evident on his face, while Bia stared at the old man's face blankly.

"Oh my, he does inherit his mother's suspecting frown." Netero laughed. Kuroro did not respond to this.

Suddenly, Bia raised a finger and began a writing motion on air. The air around her turned slightly charged, and even some strands of hers and Meta's hair flicked because of the electrical charge that her Nen was emitting. Netero raised both eyebrows as he used his Gyo and realised that the white-haired girl was writing on air with her Nen. There were glowing words floating in air, the source coming from the girl's index finger.

'_Who are you?'_ she asked.

"I'm your mother's boss." Netero smiled again, and there was a glint of amusement in his beetle eyes. "Who taught you this skill?"

'_Daddy'_, she answered. When Kuroro saw this word floating, the corner of his eyes twitched; he was still unused of being called that. Truthfully, he was not even used to being called 'Dad' by Meta (he did not think that he would _ever_ get used to that), but he flawlessly hid that uneasiness—as usual—although Kurapika did probe him about it and teased him about it several times before.

"You did?" Netero turned to regard Kuroro with a look of curiosity.

"Kurapika taught her how to write while I simply think that it'll be more efficient to communicate with Nen since it's more readily accessible than paper and pen." He replied flatly.

"True, true…" Netero nodded his head in deep contemplation. _As expected of Kuroro Lucifer, _he thought. "Well then, tell Kurapika I'll be waiting for her outside."

Kuroro looked on as Netero sauntered out of the house comfortably. He then felt a tug on the cuff of his shirt.

"Dad…" Meta stared at him in confusion with big deep sapphire eyes. "What's going on?"

"Your mother is going for work again." He told them; which elicited a moan of protest from Meta and a deep frown from Bia.

Meta then ran upstairs, undoubtedly to Kurapika's bedroom. Kuroro knew that the boy was going to beg for her not to go and stay; which he often did when either one of them were going for their jobs after only a short time of togetherness. Bia did not run after Meta; instead she looked up to Kuroro and hugged his leg; short as she was.

Kuroro looked down and suddenly felt compelled to ruffle that mass of white hair. Bia looked up when Kuroro did that, and she smiled at him. The corners of Kuroro's lips went upturned slightly at this; but it was an involuntary gesture.

* * *

"Why are you going again? You're just back!" He whined and whined while clinging at Kurapika's arm, making it very hard for her to pack her necessities for the mission.

"Meta, it can't be helped." Kurapika tried to calm the boy down, but he would not.

"Buuuuuuut…" He pressed his face to her arm, refusing to let go at all.

Kurapika sighed and stopped packing. She turned to regard the blond boy from the top of his hair down to his toes. His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, the telltale that he was going to cry river soon.

"You know your father doesn't like it when you act like this."

Meta hung his head. He remembered very well the time when he had whined at his father in complaints, and how his father had regarded him with a displeased frown, crossed his arms, spelled his full name and said the word "Stop" with such authority that he zipped his mouth shut in the instance. While his mother was way stricter in terms of discipline and nagged about it, his father could exude this aura that seemed to beat him into submission.

(At that time Kurapika had complained: "You should've done that sooner!")

The blond boy then shook his head.

"Right." Kurapika ruffled his hair. "Now let me finish packing, okay?"

Meta nodded and sat on the bed forlornly.

When Kurapika had finished her packing and had gone downstairs with Meta in tow, Bia was in the kitchen drinking a glass of milk while Kuroro was sitting on the chair while reading the book from Kurapika. Meta went to Bia and hugged her, and for consolation she offered the milk to him.

"The same drama." Kurapika told him with a sigh as she stood before him.

"I thought so." He put down his book.

"Any plan?"

"So far not yet."

"I see." She turned to look at the children; Meta was drinking the milk that Bia gave him. "Looks like Bia take this easily."

"She does." One thing that Kuroro really liked about Bia was that she was mostly cool about everything. It made life easier for him. He realised that she was somewhat like him in that aspect.

'_Are you going now?'_ Bia asked her with her Nen writing.

"Yes. I'll be back as soon as possible." Kurapika gave her an apologetic smile.

Bia nodded her head; the locks of her curly white-hair bobbing around her olive-skinned face.

"Well then," Kurapika turned back to Kuroro. She put a hand on her hip, bent forward, and patted Kuroro's cheek with her other free hand, "happy baby-sitting."

Kuroro looked positively flabbergasted by this sudden out-of-character gesture from Kurapika. She had never done this before! She went for the door while laughing at his expression without giving Kuroro time to react properly. Even after Kurapika had closed the door behind her, he was still staring at the door with a blank-but-not-indifferent face.

He was brought back to reality when he felt two soft tugs on his cuff—he knew that it was Bia before even looking, since she had made it a habit with him. There were expectant glints in those hazel green eyes and even when Meta was still somewhat down, he seemed to have recovered fast. To Kuroro's eyes, he could see that Bia had been the one to inspire this fast recovery, especially when Bia wrote:

'_Can we start that training thing? You promised we could do that when Mommy is not around.'_

Kuroro raised his eyebrow. He looked up and covered his mouth with his hand; his thinking gesture. By 'training' that Bia mentioned, it was a secret Nen training of both Bia and Meta under his tutelage. A few days earlier, Meta had come to him and asked him about Nen.

"_That's so unfair! Everyone here can do it except me!" _ That was Meta's cry of anguish when the blond boy told him how Kurapika had refused to teach him Nen yet since he was too young to begin.

Of course Kuroro thought otherwise, but he knew Kurapika too well and she would not change her opinion. It was absolutely delightful for him that the boy showed enthusiasm in learning Nen, especially since he had just turned five-years-old recently. He had been eight-years-old when he first opened his _Shouko _point; which was shortly after blood transfusion from Ishtar, after she impaled him in the stomach by accident.

Needless to say that Kuroro had been intrigued to see if a five-years-old could discover and open his _Shouko_ or not. He had agreed to train him—and Bia as well since she requested—about Nen on the condition that they had to keep it a secret from Kurapika since he wanted to avoid unnecessary hassle. If Kurapika discovered the secret training after Meta had opened his _Shouko_, well she could do nothing about it. Besides, there was no harm in it (in his opinion). The best part was that he never promised her not to train them.

Kuroro turned to regard the children; who were still staring at him with big eyes. He then made his decision fast.

"Okay. Pack up now. We'll leave as soon as we are clear." He said with one strong clap of his hands; which sent the children rushing to their bedrooms. By 'clear' he was referring to until Kurapika had flown out of the mountain, that she would not be able to detect the sudden movements of them out of the town.

Kuroro then walked out of the house and to the outskirt of the forest. Once he was in the border of the forest, he whistled in a certain pattern that was more of a code than anything else. After a while, there were sounds of hoofs falling on the forest's soft ground and soon enough a pair of unicorns with contrasting body colour appeared before him.

_What's up?_ The black one asked.

"We'll be going for a trip. Do you want to come along?"

_Sure thing. My legs need some decent exercise,_ Bara said while digging his hoofs excitedly on the soft soil.

_Kurapika's not coming?_ Una asked him. _Una saw Kurapika going with President._ Una had been helping Kurapika with her Hunter mission before the entire Meta-kidnapping-fiasco, so she knew of Netero being Kurapika's boss, and she dubbed him 'President'.

"Yes. That's why we're making this trip now."

_Now, now, aren't you a conniving bastard?_ Bara teased him, quoting Kurapika.

Meanwhile, Kurapika herself was walking with Netero towards the entrance of the town; where the company's smallest blimp had been parked in. She was not exactly comfortable with leaving as soon as she had just got back.

"Chairman," Kurapika called out at the said old man, "next time I won't accept this kind of situation. Please be more considerate."

Her tone was not exactly harsh; since Netero was ultimately her superior in all aspect, but still she had to firmly make clear of certain conditions.

"I understand. My mistake." Netero answered with nods of his head, and he was grinning.

Kurapika did not exactly like that grin because she knew the reason behind that grin. Although it was just a haphazard guess, she would rather not confirm it. She had been embarrassed for too many times in one day.

* * *

The wind in the Shooting Star City was as desolate as ever but it did not bother any of the natives there, and neither did it bother certain visitors who happened to be present there at the moment.

Two people were sitting under the shade of some toppling structures and debris somewhere in the Scavenger's Ground; one a grown-up and the other a mere child. One might say that they were hiding, since the spot that they had chosen was hard to discover without the help of Nen. The adult was factually in his mid-thirties but he looked like he was still in his late twenties at most, and he was reading a book leisurely. Sitting cross-legged before him, in further corner of their 'hiding place', was the blond child. The boy's eyes were closed and he was very much in a meditating stance.

The place was not exactly suitable for a proper meditation because of the occasional harsh rattling of the trashes around the area due to the strong wind that swept across the place from time to time, as well as the distant yells and cries coming from the natives that were scouring the area for their livings. The man had deemed the place suitable for the young's meditative training for a reason that he had not divulged yet.

"_Măi _(oi)_,_ there you are! I knew it!" A baritone voice broke the calm, and an intruder trespassed into the zone.

"Sounds like you've been searching for us," was Kuroro's easy reply as if he had been anticipating the newcomer's arrival—which he actually did not.

"Of course! I went to the house two days ago and found it empty like the black hole. _Gol! __Üres__! Vide! Vacía! Vuoto! _(Romanian, Hungarian, French, Spanish, Italian for 'empty' respectively)" The pale, black-haired man threw his hands heavenward in exasperation.

"You could've called me _before_ you went there." Kuroro still had not averted his attention from his book.

"Well, pardon me for planning on surprising you." The man jabbed an irritated finger at Kuroro. "But as you see, I failed again grandly."

"As usual." There was a snickering tone in Kuroro's voice.

"_DA!_ (yes) _Ca de obicei!_ (as usual) _Hau _(expression of grief), poor me…" He exclaimed while closing his grey eyes, putting a hand on his chest and the back of his other hand on his forehead as if he was going to swoon.

"At least you are still full of drama." There was a thin smile playing on Kuroro's visage.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I keep you entertained, right? Sure, of course." He gave Kuroro a dirty look, before turning to look at the meditating boy. "And what's Meta doing? Meditation? _Bre_ (wow)! I never thought this little hyperactive fiend is capable of such thing."

_**I share the same sentiment as you do, Lucian.**_

The said man went rigid at the sudden new voice that seemed to have come out of nowhere. Although the voice was rather reverberating, he still recognised that familiar voice. He looked around, trying to find the owner of the voice and he finally found it: perching on Kuroro Lucifer's shoulder.

"You do? I'm surprised. I thought you're the boy's doting grandfather, Anansi." Lucian visibly cringed at the last two words. It gave a very odd ring when put together. "And is that tiny little squash-able black spider your avatar here? Stuck in the temple, are you?"

_**Not exactly. I'm in the garden right now.**_

"Jungle, you mean." Lucian countered flatly. There was no way that huge acres of gigantic trees beyond the temple could be called a humble 'garden'.

_**Garden.**_

"_Mă rog_ (whatever)." Lucian shrugged and waved a dismissive hand. He looked around while putting his hands akimbo, and then noticed someone missing. "Where's Bia? Usually she's always with Meta like they're some inseparable twins."

"She's training right now."

"What training?" Lucian frowned at this.

_**This sadist here made the poor girl searched the entire Ryuusei-gai for us here. He even disallowed her from using her Nen! How more abusive can he—**_

"Bia has enough exercise with her Nen control. She just needs to expand the variety of her abilities." Kuroro interjected.

It was Bia's specialty to consistently employ her Nen in a spherical structure; very much like how Nen-user usually deployed En. Kuroro had thought that perhaps she could go into Specialization class if she continued honing that particular trait.

"She lacks stamina and physical exercise," Kuroro continued.

"So this is her physical exercise? Searching for this God-forsaken spot in the middle of nowhere of Ryuusei-gai?" Lucian took a seat in front of Kuroro. "You are sadistic, alright. What if something happened to her in the middle of this (stupid) training? Kurapika's going to skin you alive." To emphasise his point, Lucian made a snappy chopping move across his throat with his hand.

"She'll be fine. She knows how to defend herself."

"Let me guess. You taught her how to fight?"

Kuroro chuckled pleasantly at this. "No. Meta did the most part, with Kurapika pitching in here and there. All I did was to refine their moves."

"By golly… The strangest of all things only happen in your family, I'm telling you, Lucifer." Lucian muttered while shaking his head in disbelief. He gave up trying to figure out how the system in this peculiar 'family' worked since months ago.

_**In case you haven't noticed—which I strongly believe that you haven't—Meta here is actually doing his Nen training,**_ Anansi supplied him generously.

"Seriously?" Lucian's eyes could not have possibly grown any larger.

"He's still searching for his _Shouko_."

"I thought you'd use the _Gehou _method," which was the same method as the one Wing used to open Killua's and Gon's _Shouko_, "rather than this painfully slow method."

"I prefer this conventional method. Yes, it is slow, but he'll have the opportunity to get to know his body inside and out better. Meta has a very keen sixth sense—"

"So keen that sometimes it freaks me out." Lucian mumbled.

"—so he'll be able to master Nen better and faster with this method as the starting point. Besides, we are not exactly in a rush of time."

Even if Meta still had not managed to open his _Shouko_ by the time Kurapika returned, it would not exactly matter since Meta could still resume his meditation when she was not looking—if he was careful enough, of course. Kuroro made a mental note to teach the boy that later. Stealth was probably one of the virtues that Meta was lacking at the moment. Bia; not to his surprise, could be sufficiently stealthy when she needed to be.

"Only the best for the kids, eh? I underestimate you, Lucifer."

_**He's actually putting a lot of effort in raising these kids. A surprise, no?**_Anansi snickered.

Both Lucian and Anansi laughed out loud at this. Kuroro chose to ignore the raucous noises and resumed his reading peacefully. Unfortunately, someone just could not take the increasing level of noise—and Kuroro knew this. So he began counting silently…

"You are all too loud!"

Ah, that was Meta finally blowing his fuse. His sudden outburst alone had surprised the living deadness out of Lucian, and his high-pitch screechy voice added to the 'zest' of it. Lucian literally jumped several inches off the ground at the sudden noise from his side. Even Anansi's spider avatar jumped off Kuroro's shoulder in shock; stumbled onto the piles of debris and disappeared somewhere there.

"Lucian, you're really _really _LOUD!" Meta yelled at him while waving his hand in frustration.

"Now who's the loud one? And what's with that 'Lucian'? I thought you always call me—"

"Lucian."

The said man zipped his mouth shut and his back went rigid when a certain glacial, South Pole voice reached his spine and breathed "suggest anything idiotic to him and I'll make you wish you're dead for real" to his ears. Needless to say that Lucian knew where it was coming and he knew that the speaker was _a man of his words_. To save himself from potential agony, Lucian then wisely let his words hung unfinished where it was left and instead grinned like someone who had just guzzled a bottle of laxative; who was still fuming at him.

_**Geez, the way he screams really reminds me of Kurapika. How scary, the resemblance of mother and son…**_ Said Anansi as his spider avatar crawled from underneath a certain rubble.

Meta kept on bombarding Anansi and Lucian with his complaints, when Kuroro suddenly called out to him. He had put down his book and was looking at the boy intensely with his hands clasped. Although Meta had only known his father for only half a year, he had known many of his habits—"Intense observation trait inherited from both parents. Creep the living dead out of me…" Lucian had commented once—and their implications. This gesture, for one, he knew as the sign that he was being serious and he wanted Meta to sit down and listen closely to what he had to say. So Meta quieted down and looked at Kuroro with pleading eyes—which did not affect the Spider Head, of course.

"Do you know why I brought you _here_, of all places, for meditation?"

Meta shook his head. Both Anansi and Lucian were very silent; both very eager to witness how Kuroro Lucifer deal with a kid—his son, to be precise.

"Because you are very easily distracted. Anyone can meditate in calm places, but it's a different issue with noisy environment. You will have to deal with the noises. If you can keep focusing while these…" Kuroro seemed to want to call them something else, but in the end he chose a much friendlier term, "…people are fooling around and making so much noise, then you are good to go."

Lucian rolled his eyes. Trust Kuroro Lucifer to be overly critical about attention-span. For a five-years-old, Meta already had astounding attention-span, but it seemed that this incorrigible (he credited Kurapika for such precise description of Kuroro) man wanted it to be on an entirely different—a.k.a. inhuman—level. Had Kurapika been present there, she would have scolded Kuroro for being too demanding.

But no! Kurapika was not there! And lo, and behold! The blond Kurapika-doppelganger boy nodded meekly as if he was in the same wavelength as his father. Like always.

_Poor Kurapika. I think I'm beginning to understand her occasional frustration when dealing with this two at the same time. Like father like son, but this is just way too creepy,_ Lucian thought while applauding Kurapika's immeasurable impatience when dealing with this father and son who did not look alike at all—save for the eyes.

"And I quote, 'Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.'" Lucian brought up his hands in a blessing gesture.

"A Bible verse?" Kuroro raised an eyebrow at him.

"Proverb, chapter 22 verse 15." Lucian said with a bow; as if he was a performer.

_**Oh, here comes our princess**__,_ Anansi suddenly announced.

True to his words, there were sounds of rubbles and debris being trampled by a pair of small feet; from the sound of it, and soon enough a petite figure emerged. It was Bia; no doubt about it, but she looked rather frazzled and dishevelled. Her legs were covered in some shallow cuts; mostly grazes, and there were some bruises on her arms. Her hair looked as if it had been pulled roughly just recently.

"_Doamne!_ (dear Lord) What in the name of seven freezing hells happened to you? Did you get attacked by shameless robbers on your way here?" Lucian hurriedly went to check her thoroughly.

_**That's a possibility, but she has nothing valuable on her, right?**_ Anansi 'shrugged'.

"The only thing valuable on her is the bracelet I put on her. You still have it, Bia?"

Bia nodded vigorously and rather proudly as she raised her hand to show the bracelet intact around her small wrist. From her attitude, it seemed that her assaulters had targeted that bracelet and she had protected it bravely.

"Since when you start dressing up little girls, Lucifer?" Lucian looked at him with a look of mock disgust.

"You should go for medical check-up sometimes, Lucian. Maybe that's the symptom of memory degradation you are having." Kuroro said flatly as he motioned at Bia to come closer. "That's the Nen-repressing bracelet that Shalnark made with technology replicated from Bensalem."

"_Ştiu__!_ (I know) I'm just kidding, you kill-joy." Lucian scrunched up his face in annoyance. "But anyway, looks like she really does know how to fend for herself. Did you give them some good punches and kicks, or maybe scratches, _prinţesă _(princess)? Oh, maybe I really shouldn't ask. That blood on your knuckles isn't yours, so I think you knocked some teeth out of a poor guy's mouth. The last time I remember, she was still this sweet girl who can barely harm a fly, not to mention that she has—or rather, had—severe case of muscle atrophy. Shit, how have you been training her, Lucifer?"

Kuroro decided to largely ignore the vampire ("Oi!") as he released the bracelet from Bia's wrist. He then turned to look at her in the eyes and asked:

"Did you use your Nen?"

Bia shook her head with yet another proud expression on her now healthier face.

"Even when defending yourself?"

Again, she shook her head; her white hair dancing gracefully around her pale olive visage.

_**You sure she's not lying?**_Anansi asked as he perched on Kuroro's shoulder again.

"No." Kuroro said confidently. His left eye—the one with True Vision—said nothing about her lying.

"Wow, now you're a walking lie detector, Lucifer?"

Still Kuroro ignored him ("_La naiba _(damn you), Lucifer. _Ce e vina mea de data asta?_ (what's my fault this time)) as the Spider Head checked Bia's timing with his wristwatch. The time she took to find them was good, considering that she had been relying solely on her instinct and field skill. It looked like survival skills and field skill that Meta had been teaching her for the past few months—he had been watching them doing it with undisguised amusement—were paying off. Kuroro then reached out and ruffled her white curly hair. He gave her a small smile; one which Lucian swore had an obvious hint of pride on it, and said:

"Very good."

Bia smiled broadly at him; the broadest she had ever put. Anansi; who had a vantage point as he perched on Kuroro's shoulder, remarked with astonishment:

_**That's a very wide smile.**_

"Oh, I think I'm going to swoon." Lucian said jokingly in a very drama-queen fashion as he put the back of his hand on his forehead and pretended to sway on his feet.

Being naïve and innocent, Bia hurriedly turned from Kuroro and approached Lucian. She really thought he was going to pass out, so she latched on his leg firmly. Seeing this, Lucian felt like he was melting.

"_Tu, fată dulce_… (You, sweet girl)" He murmured as he bent to his knees and hugged Bia dearly. Seeing this, Meta decided he wanted to join the hugging session so he meshed himself with them; essentially tackling the two of them to the very dusty ground.

As the three struggled among the debris and rubbles of the Scavenger's Ground, Kuroro rolled his eyes at their antics. Suddenly, his phone vibrated and he was surprised to see the Caller ID. He had just pressed the "answer" button and scarcely put the phone near his ears when the caller seemingly screamed at the phone.

"_Kuroro, help me!"_

The voice from the speaker was so loud that even the three wrestling on the ground heard it. All of them froze when they heard that pleading voice that they recognised very well.

"Kurapika?" (this was Lucian)

_**Kurapika?**_

"Mom?"

'_Mommy?'_

* * *

"So the reason why you called—asking me to come here as soon as possible so desperately, to be specific—is because they won't let you go?"

That was Kuroro Lucifer's statement/question, spoken in incredulity as he stared at a group of tribal people who looked like they were about to catch a very rare specimen of animal hiding behind him. Well, to be honest she was a rare specimen due to her Scarlet Eyes but he suspected that it was for another whole different matter.

"You never told me that this Naga tribe is Ishtar's tribe!" Kurapika complained as she was half-hiding behind him.

This Naga tribe was Kurapika's newest assignment from Netero. She had heard that the tribe existed very exclusively; more exclusive than her Kuruta clan and more elusive than Yorn's Unicorn tribe. It was a tribe that worshipped snakes.

"How did you know?"

"They keep saying her name!"

"Why?"

"They found out about me having a bit of Ishtar's blood in mine, so they thought I'm her reincarnation or something like that! What's Ishtar role in this tribe, anyway? Is she their goddess or what?"

"I don't know."

"Because you didn't want to know!" Kurapika irritably smacked his forearm. "And why did you bring the children here?"

The children; with the two unicorns plus Lucian (who had come along in curiosity using his familiar since the unicorns refused to let him mount any of them), were standing quite far away from this admittedly hilarious scene. Lucian was obviously snickering and exchanging some remarks with Bara. Una seemed nervous; she kept fidgeting with her hoofs, while the children were holding each other's hands and looked quite unsure of what to make of the situation.

"We were in Ryuusei-gai." He told her with all honesty.

"WHAT? What were you doing there?"

"More importantly, how did they find out about your blood?"

"Ask their creepy old shaman over there!"

The said shaman was a very _very _old man who looked more like a shrivelled mummy than anything else. He spoke something to the people and some of the tribesmen began speaking at the same time in a foreign language that Kuroro did not understand. He turned to Kurapika; who shook her head in dismay.

"I don't understand either. Their language is too ancient. I couldn't find any records of their language."

"Then how did you know that they think of you as Ishtar's reincarnation?"

"Instinct."

"You are not making any sense." Kuroro rolled his eyes, but then he smirked at her. "So here's where Meta comes in."

"WHAT? NO, YOU ARE NOT GETTING HIM INVOL—MMPH!"

Suffice to say that Kuroro had gagged her mouth with his bare hand; putting his palm around her mouth as he pressed her head to his chest and therefore restraining her at the same time, and called out at Meta and Bia to come to him. The duo obeyed him without wasting a millisecond, and so they came scampering on his tiny feet down the hill towards their parents with mixed look of excitement and nervousness on their faces.

"What? Why? What's going on?" Meta asked excitedly. He seemed to ignore the fact that his mother was being gagged forcefully by his father.

"You'll know if you interpret them." Kuroro gestured at the throng of people eagerly waiting around them.

"Interpret them? How?" Meta said with a blink of confusion, while Bia cocked her head sideways.

"Do what you two always do. You feel their emotions, and Bia will project them with her Nen. We will do the rest."

"But…" Meta looked at the group of people. "There are so many of them."

"You see the old man over there? The one with many necklaces and accessories?" Kuroro pointed at the shaman, and Kurapika grinded his foot angrily but he ignored it. "Try focusing on him alone. Ask him what they want from your mother."

Meta nodded and, taking Bia's hand in his, the two of them walked towards the old shaman fearlessly; while Kurapika was the one who feared for them but she was restrained from making any moves by Kuroro. Meta extended one tiny hand at the shaman; and the old man smiled at him—showing his rows of yellow teeth that had some gaps here and there—and took his hands in his thin, wrinkly one. Meta projected his question to him: _What do you want from Mom?_

The shaman's thoughts were transferred to Meta, and then it was projected by Bia through her Nen. A hologram appeared; it twisted and squirmed until it finally turned into a solid form; a woman who was none other than Ishtar. She was dressed in a very grandiose fashion and there were people bowing to her; worshiping her. Seeing this, Kurapika elbowed Kuroro in the stomach as if telling him: "See? I told you!"

The image of Ishtar then left her people, and then she split into two; a much bigger part into the image of a man, and a small part into a woman. Kuroro and Kurapika widened their eyes as the new shapes appeared, and they found themselves staring at their own images.

"Uh, Lucifer? Kurapika?" They did not realise when Lucian had approached them. "I think this isn't looking good. At all."

"I think I know what they want from _us_." Kuroro said softly, yet still (annoyingly) calmly. He then released his gag on Kurapika's mouth.

"I think…" Kurapika breathed. "We have to get the children away from them. Now."

It was obvious that Ishtar had been a member of the royalty there, and that somehow they knew that both Kuroro and Kurapika shared the royalty's blood through Ishtar. It was obvious that they wanted to keep them in the tribe because they carried the royalty's blood.

"Problem is; that creepy shaman has his hand around Meta's." Lucian stated with unnecessarily grievous voice.

Answering to this problem, Kuroro summoned his Skill Hunter book. He turned to Kurapika. "Should I?"

"By all means. Yes, please." Kurapika was more eager to go into actions than anything else.

"Ok. I'm starting now."

"Wait, am I missing some—_SFÂNT RAHAT! _(holy crap)"

The reason of Lucian's unbecoming response was because the children suddenly disappeared into thin air, only to reappear right above him. It was only with all due respect to his reflex that he managed to catch the children—with Meta squealing and Bia thunder-stricken—on time. Before he even recovered, he felt a tight grip around his forearm. He only had the scantiest time to see Kuroro holding him with his left hand, while his right arm had that red leather-bound book on it, with Kurapika clinging to Kuroro's hand.

Without any warning, Kuroro teleported them to the sides of the unicorns. Lucian was cursing in his surprise—fortunately in Romanian so he did not receive any glares from Kurapika—when the children were ripped off his hands. Kurapika took Bia with her and mounted Una, while Kuroro took Meta with him and mounted Bara. Without a word, the unicorns dashed off when their passengers were safe on their backs.

"How very gracious of you!" Lucian yelled at them sarcastically as he hurriedly summoned his familiar—a black raven big enough for one passenger—for his escape from the angry mob of tribe people. "At least do something about these frenzied savages!"

"Bia, help him?" Kurapika asked the white-haired girl in her arms as she herself focused on the road ahead of her.

The mute girl nodded and extended a hand towards the wave of angry Naga people. There were sharp increase of charge in the air, and suddenly a lightning struck the gap between Lucian and the Naga people. It scorched the land, scared the living daylight out of the Naga people and sent them scampering home, and sufficiently singed the tip of Lucian's hair.

"I'll overlook this, _prinţesă_ (princess)! Next time take care not to include me in your menu!" Lucian called out as he urged his familiar to run for their lives.

"Dad, shouldn't we help him?" Meta asked his father.

"He can take care of himself."

"Really? Is he strong?"

"Yes." Kuroro answered with a chuckle, and there was no uncertainty in his word.

"Hm… Doesn't look like it." Meta rested his chin on Kuroro's shoulder comfortably. Poor Lucian; even Meta underestimated him.

"Never judge a book by its cover, Meta."

"Okay. Why did you do that, anyway? Why are we running away?"

"Do you want to stay there with them?"

"Ew! No!"

"None of us do, but those people want us to stay."

"Oh. Okay. Where are we going now?"

"Back home."

Meta hummed in satisfaction as he hugged his father's neck and stayed that way for the rest of the ride.

* * *

The nearest place for refuge they could reach—since it was already evening by the time Kuroro reached the Naga tribe's place—was actually Ryuusei-gai. In the first place, the short distance was also the reason why he could quickly come to Kurapika's 'rescue'. Even when they reached Ryuusei-gai, it was already past midnight; the children had fallen asleep during the ride. However, the moment they reached the forest beyond the temple; since the unicorns could only stay in the forest, Kurapika hurriedly dismounted Una and ran off to a corner—which could be defined as somewhere among the trees and bushes—and started vomiting.

"Are you that shocked?" Kuroro asked her as he stood behind her.

"N, no… I don't think it's because of that Naga tribe thing…" Kurapika said groggily as she took a broad, clean leaf from nearby and wiped her mouth with it. "I haven't been feeling well these past few days."

Kuroro turned around and looked at a certain jet-black-haired man who managed to catch up with their 'exodus' from the Naga tribe. He was still nursing his singed hair, but he did hear their conversation and understood the meaning of Kuroro's look.

"Don't look at me. I'm no doctor. I'm just an apothecary." Lucian crossed his arms in a NO-NO gesture while shaking his head. "Since we're in Ryuusei-gai, why don't we let that old hag of yours take a look at _ta draga_ (your darling)?"

"What old hag?"

"GYAAAA!"

Suffice to say that Hatsubaba had appeared right behind Lucian and poked him at a certain pressure point that could inflict hellish pain. While Lucian was writhing in agony in the dirt, Hatsubaba strolled her way to Kuroro and Kurapika.

"Seems like you've got a problem. I don't do my practice here. Let's go inside the temple. They," she gestured at the children, "need proper beds, as well."

When they stepped inside the temple, Anansi was already waiting for them and had a room prepared for them. Hatsubaba then left Kuroro to take care of the rest while she dragged a slightly unwilling Kuruta with her into another empty room. As soon as they were inside the room, Hatsubaba straightaway began questioning her.

"How unwell have you been?"

"That's a strange question." She frowned, but nevertheless answered her question. "I just feel tired and queasy. Occasionally nauseous and sometimes vomiting. Oh, and more headaches."

"Not because of Lucifer and the children?" She grinned; rather wickedly, in Kurapika's opinion.

"…As much as I'm inclined that it's because of _him_, no I don't think so. All these started about last week, during my work."

"Hmm…" Hatsubaba put a wrinkly, frail-looking hand on Kurapika's arm and her Nen began to flow. Her Nen enveloped Kurapika and penetrated into her body, searching for any abnormalities and damages outside and inside of her. Kurapika felt light-headed at this, but she supposed that was the effect of the 'treatment'.

At one point, Hatsubaba raised both eyebrows and the wrinkles on her forehead increased by manifolds, and then she frowned, and then she grinned. She then withdrew her Nen and regarded Kurapika with a hard look.

"Okay. Sit down first, will you?"

Knowing better than to question Hatsubaba while she was in her 'doctor mode', Kurapika obeyed her. She had no idea why she had to do that, though.

"Listen here, Kurapika. This question will determine the cause of your sickness. I want you to answer as honestly as possible. Do I make myself clear?"

Kurapika blinked at this. Of course she would answer truthfully when it came to medical check-up. Why would she lie? Still confused with Hatsubaba's weird question, Kurapika nodded.

"Now. I ask you: about three or four weeks ago, _did you have sex with Kuroro_?"

And then there was silence. Pin-drop silence.

Kurapika stared at Hatsubaba with wide eyes and slack jaws; as if the wizened old woman had grown another head, while Hatsubaba stared back at Kurapika with critical eyes.

"Well?" Hatsubaba asked impatiently.

"W, w, well, I…"

"Answer me, girl!" Hatsubaba barked at her.

"Y, Y, YES WE DID!"

Kurapika covered her mouth with a slap of her hand, and her face; including her ears, instantly turned lobster red. So red it was one might now be surprised to see her face smoking in embarrassment.

"Now there you go. How hard is it to answer such simple question? Honestly..."

_You could've rephrased it with better words!_ Kurapika protested inwardly, although in all truth it would not make any big difference since the phrase 'made love' would still made her feel embarrassed.

Suddenly, something clicked in her mind.

"W, wait. If you ask me that, then…" She even dreaded the question that was about to come out of her own mouth.

"Need you ask, child?"

Hatsubaba laughed her characteristic cackling evil witch laughter as she walked off and out of the room, leaving Kurapika dazed and very much drowned in her own embarrassment.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Ok, some of you may be happy. I changed my mind at the very last minute. Thought this would be the Epilogue, but it turned out to be freakishly long and what kind of Epilogue is this long? So I decided to make this into yet another chapter to show the everyday of the 'family'. For the last part...well...I don't know whether I should be ashamed of myself, or to feel sorry for Kurapika, or to feel happy for her. I WAS EMBARRASSED myself when I was typing that last part..._

_As you may have felt, this chapter is basically a one example of how the days go by in the household of these two, and also about how others are involved with them. For some reasons, it's very awkward for me to write about Kuroro's interaction with Bia and Meta. I can't exactly figure him interacting with children in the first place; except in professional level. I'm scared witless that Kuroro'll be too OOC here =_= But it can't be helped even if he is. I mean, who knows how he deals with children, really? Togashi-sensei never says… =P_

_And as you may have guessed and deduced, Kuroro's department in the house is Nen training and discipline. I always figure that Kuroro and Kurapika will argue a lot regarding parental issues e.g. children upbringing since Kurapika is such a perfectionist (most of the times), while Kuroro didn't seem to give it too much thought. I think Kuroro's much more practical in this kind of thing, and he certainly knows when to emphasise on discipline (e.g. when he told Meta to can it when he's being whiny)_

_Maybe I'm rambling here, but I just want to give my thoughts regarding how I picture this strange, odd, peculiar (you name it) family. Besides, after writing so much about them, I feel an intimate connection with them and with YOU readers. _

_Don't worry. Epilogue's coming real soon. ^^_

_Waiting for your reviews here XD_

_**Next: **__Their journey had been long. Their stories had been many. However, what did their world look like in the eyes of others? What was the conclusion of all these?_


	29. Epilogue

_**Disclaimer: **__It has reached the epilogue and yet HxH is still not mine. Tragic._

* * *

_**EPILOGUE**_

* * *

The night was extraordinarily peaceful.

There was no cloud in the dark sky, nothing to obscure the stars from performing their nightly dance for the unanimous spectators. Gentle breeze blew playfully in the darkness of the night, flirting with each other, as well as with the ocean and the grass and the trees. A mansion stood in a hill, overlooking the little town and the ocean. Inside one of its many rooms were a man and a woman.

The room was quiet except for the sound of Oud being played gently and with expertise. The melody was of an ancient tale that had long disappeared from the transient memories of humanity, but still it was preserved by her. She travelled the world, weaved tales and eternised them into all manners of melodies and songs. Untouched by the hands of Time, she continued watching over the world sleeplessly; watching and listening, weaving and singing tales. That was her role, and it was to be so until the world came to an end. She was Scheherazade.

Faintly among the fine tunes produced by the Oud was the soft tapping sounds of the pale sinewy finger of a man against a wooden table. He was sitting in a comfy office chair, his elbows rested on his desk that was of dark mahogany wood. There were stacks of books and papers on the table, as well as a set of stationery neatly arranged in its stand. Behind him was a long stretch of window that overlooked the ocean beyond the edge of the hill where the mansion was standing. He could see the horizon from his spot easily. Standing against the wall on the side of the table was a huge shelf filled with books of many subjects, though it was dominated with textbooks pertaining to Medicine, herbs and poison studies. The only natural illumination in the room was the pale moonlight penetrating the window behind him, but it was pale in comparison to the glaring light that the screen of the laptop on his desktop was emitting.

He was Lucian Virgiliu, the young Count of Wallachia and heir of the throne. He was a full-fledged vampire, but he was a person who loved humanity more than anything else. His eyes were supposed to be glassy and dull like a dead fish's, but they were exceptionally otherwise. True that they were of boring grey colour; almost pale blue in hue, but there were certain glints that rightfully never belonged to the living dead.

He stared at the screen for a while, tapping his finger contemplatively against the surface of the desk, before he finally lifted the said finger and pressed a certain button of the keyboard of the laptop. The woman heard this sound, and looked up. Her wavy black hair—which seemed to glimmer under the faint moonlight—bounced slightly. Her jade eyes looked at the vampire casually.

"Finally sent?" She asked huskily without stopping her fingers' play with the Oub.

"Yes." Lucian sighed contently and leaned back to his office chair. "Thank you for your assistance, Scheherazade. Without you, I won't be able to finish all these."

"Hm…" Scheherazade looked at her Oub and changed the melody she was playing. "I am the chronicler of Man's stories. No humans can hide their stories from me, so long as the world lives on."

"True. But I heard you are quite selective when it comes to picking the stories to tell and weave." Lucian said as he turned off the laptop and put it aside.

"But of course." She hummed softly as she tapped on the strings of the Oub. "However, I find it more interesting that _you_ decide to write a particular story down into a book."

"Well, technically it's not me. I just sent their stories to my friend who's a writer by profession. She'll be able to transform my crappy writing into something truly marvellous." Lucian laughed softly and closed his eyes.

He recalled the efforts he had spent into gathering all the bits and pieces of their stories; from beginning until present day. He had no problem recalling the memories of them that he had during his journey with them, but he had no idea about their lives while he was not around. He had to ask people about them; and consequently he received countless account of their stories from multitudes of perspective. It was an astounding experience. However, Scheherazade was the main contributor to his writing, since she had long ago decided to record their stories as well.

"Why are you so involved with them, Lucian? Why are you so attached with them?" Scheherazade asked him softly. Somehow, the tune of her music had turned rather melancholic.

Lucian opened his eyes and looked at the exotic woman with golden honey skin. He shrugged at her questions and then reached out to take a certain photograph from his desk. When he looked at that photograph, his eyes softened and there was a soft glow that appeared as a stark contrast with his grim appearance and true nature.

"Why, I wonder?" He whispered dreamily.

He recalled that he had been attracted to Kuroro Lucifer since the first time they met at Abelard Constantin's place. The human gave off aura that was unlike any other normal humans. He was not exactly talking about the scent of his blood—odd as it was—but more of the man's personality. He had never encountered a human so enigmatic and mysterious like him; a loner yet sociable; gentlemanly yet merciless; a man of contradiction, a man of ruthless compassion. He wanted to understand him, to know what was going on in his mind.

However, the more he thought about it the more he was convinced that his involvement did not start there. The beginning was when he first saw Kuroro Lucifer with Kurapika Kuruta standing by his side at Abelard Constantin's party. He could foresee a storm coming at that time; with those two as the heart of that storm, and he could not bear to miss being part of that storm.

It was a very whimsical desire, but it was too strong to ignore…

_**Brooding mode?**_ A voice; hoarse and vulgar, reverberated from nowhere and everywhere.

Hearing this voice, Scheherazade frowned but she remained unfazed with her Oub.

Before long, a wispy blue will-o-wisp appeared. It soon morphed into a solid shape of a little blue-skinned boy with bald head, save only for a small ponytail jutting from the back of his head. His attire was unmistakably middle-eastern, and he had a look of grand mischief on his face.

_**Oh, what's that woman doing here?**_ He rudely asked while wringing his nose in mock disgust.

Scheherazae ignored him as if he was non-existent. She merely continued playing with her Oub, immersing herself in her own world. Irritated, the genie let out a string of curses in ancient language that only Scheherazade understood. If she was offended by it, she had perfectly masked it. In fact, a mocking, derisive smile graced her face; irritating the genie even more.

"More of a reminiscing mode. I can't believe it's been so long…" Lucian muttered wistfully.

_**I thought time is indefinite for creatures like us?**_ The genie hovered about the room before finally flew behind the pale man and floated over his shoulders. He peeked at the photograph that Lucian was holding and his eyebrows shot sky-high. _**Is that them? And they have kids now. Blimey! I think my eyes are tricking myself. **_

"And to think that you were the one who put that, I quote: 'stupid bind', on them. How long has it been, Hassamunnin?" He put an elbow on the arm-support of the chair and leaned his cheek against the palm of his hand.

_**Like hell I keep track of time. But what's been going on? **_

"Things happened. It's been very lively. Too bad you haven't been around."

_**You aren't going to tell me what's happened, are you? It's all thanks to me that they end up like that, you know!**_ The genie protested.

"But you leave halfway, so you forfeit your right to know. If you want to know, ask them yourself."

_**You do know that they're going to blast me to the next generation on the spot if I'm to appear in front of them…**_Hassamunnin murmured.

"Serve you right." He said with a snort.

Scheherazade's grin widened, but Hassamunnin was too busy fuming at Lucian to notice it.

_**Lucian, you scumbag!**_

"_Mă rog_ (whatever)." He shrugged.

_**I bet you've looking at that picture like some smitten, blushing virgin 'coz you wish you have your own family and you wish you're still a human like them! Ain't I right?**_ The genie scoffed rudely at him.

"Hassamunnin. Watch your mouth, or get out of my place."

The genie might be slightly older than the young vampire, but at the moment it was undoubted that Lucian was emitting a murderous aura that he rarely gave off at all. His voice was unusually steely. His eyes flashed dangerously crimson; they were so bright that they glowed eerily like a pair of ruby in the darkness of the room.

Scheherazade even looked up and regarded Lucian with a look of curiosity in her jade eyes. A smirk played on her lips but she said nothing. Hassamunnin gulped hard and decided to depart from the room with a rude farting sound as his parting 'gift'. Scheherazade's music once again dominated the room, and the tune had turned soft and calming. A few minutes passed, until the tension finally left the vampire.

"Are you sore in the heart?" She asked him gently.

"…I guess…" Lucian muttered solemnly, and Scheherazade could see the shade of wistfulness in his grey eyes.

"In that case, shall I lighten your heart?" She said huskily as she changed the melody of her music.

Different tune flowed, filling the small, dark room. It was not a jovial tune, but calm and tranquil. Lucian put the photograph carefully on the desk; as if it was a treasure, and put his arms on the desk and put his chin on his hand. He went back staring to the photograph.

The four people in the photograph were not exactly looking back at him, since it was a photo taken in a rush of moment—courtesy to Fino and her upgraded camera—but still it was his favourite one.

"_Te-ai schimbat foarte mult_ (you've changed a lot), Lucifer." He whispered while poking a face on the photograph with his finger. "_Cred că a început, deoarece te-ai blocat cu ea _(I think it started since you got stuck with her)."

Scheherazade did hear those words, and she did understand those words. She understood all languages, considering her role in the world. She said not a word of it, and kept her counsel to herself. Instead, she kept drumming her fingers against the strings of the Oub, plucking them and weaving new melodies.

A beeping voice broke Lucian from his reverie. He took out his cell phone and was surprised to see Fino calling him. It was unusual for her to contact him.

"Yes, Fino dear?" He greeted her playfully.

_[Lucian! It's twins! TWINS!]_

He was quiet for a moment to give time for the ringing in his ears to die down, before he responded.

"What twi—oh. Oh. Aah…" He laughed out loud. "Then? How's their response?"

_[Meta and Bia are absolutely thrilled. Kurapika almost fainted. Kuroro…laughed.]_

"Laughed? Why on earth did he laugh?" Lucian blinked. Dear Lord, they seemed to already have their hands full with two children and now they were going to have more? And he laughed at that? Oh, maybe he was feeling masochistic at the moment.

A woman in the room snickered softly as she heard the conversation.

_[Beats me.]_ Lucian could virtually see the girl shrugging. _[Anyway, so far the ones who know about this are only the four of them, me, my family, Shalnark, and you. Kurapika made a really CLEAR point that she doesn't want anyone else to know, since she wants to avoid unnecessary hassles. She even made Shal swore not to say a word to the other Spiders. No fun…]_

Suddenly, in the background of the call there was a shrill yell.

"So what's with that noise? Someone's going for Third World War?"

_[Oh, that's Kurapika yelling at Kuroro again. Usually she's not this temperamental, but her mood-swings make things harder for her. Basically, Meta asked them why he has that mark on his palm that's identical to Kuroro's.]_

"And what did they tell him?"

_[Umm… I think something along the line: he's Kuroro's son…]_

"Well, that's true anyway. So? What does that have to do with this fight?"

_[Actually, they're not fighting. More like Kurapika taking out her frustration on Kuroro. Anyway, since Meta thinks of Bia as his sister, he drew the same mark on Bia's palm with permanent marker.]_

"And Kurapika's frustrated because of that?" He asked incredulously. It was not like Kurapika to get upset over such small issue.

_[Mood-swings, Lucian. Mood-swings…]_ Fino said with a sigh. _[That said, do you have anything to erase that permanent marker thing from her palm?]_

"I guess I can make one." Lucian shrugged. "By the way, how's it going?"

_[Hm? You wanna hear?]_

Lucian heard a shift, and then the next moment he could really hear the conversation going on between the Spider Head and the last pure-blooded Kuruta.

_[You think this is fun, don't you?]_ Came Kurapika's growl.

_[Should I not think so?]_ Oh, Lucian could so hear the chuckle in his voice and feel the temper rising in the Kuruta's head.

_[You're impossible! Let me go, I'm going to get something to wash that stupid mark off her hand!]_

_[We have no such thing here, and I don't think any of the shops in this town sell something like that.]_

_[WHAT? Then how did the children get their hands on those permanent markers, in the first place?]_

_[My guess is that they are gifts from someone else.]_

_[Who?]_

_[Ask them.]_

_[Well?]_

_[Killua gave it to me when he visited last time.]_ Meta chirped fearlessly. It seemed that he was already used to this kind of situation.

_[Why didn't you tell me?]_

_[You didn't ask.]_ His reply was straight and absolutely remorseless.

_[What?]_ That was Kurapika's shriek.

_[On the bright side, at least he's not lying to you, Kurapika.]_ There, the chuckle in his voice again.

_[Tell you what? He starts talking like YOU!]_

_[Is that a bad thing?]_ Meta piped in innocently.

_[W, well…]_

_[Good point, Meta.]_

_[Kuroro! YOU—]_

There were muffled sounds of someone being gagged, and next was a kind of dragging sound, and last was the sound of footsteps on the wooden staircase, and finally there was a distant sound of a door being closed; presumably on the second floor of the house.

_[Well, that's the end of the show.]_ Fino's voice came with slight regret. Lucian could tell that she was enjoying it.

"Let me guess: Kurapika almost cursed, and so Lucifer dragged her upstairs to continue their argument safe from the children's ears, while Meta and Bia have been watching from sidelines as if they're watching live movies, minus the popcorns."

_[Bingo!]_ Fino exclaimed.

While Kurapika was not a foul-mouthed person, she had greater tendency to curse than Lucifer did. Actually, Lucian could count the number of time when Kuroro Lucifer actually cursed with only the fingers of one hand. That insufferable debonair always maintained his refined mannerism whenever wherever, and Lucian could guess that he wanted Meta to be as 'refined', therefore the 'spare the children from profanities' policy that Kurapika was more than eager to support.

_[You know…]_ Suddenly Fino lowered her voice into a whisper and her tone turned conniving._ [Once I saw Kurapika broke down into tears during her mood-swing—]_

"She can cry?"

_[Of course she can! What do you think she is?]_ Fino hissed at him. Scheherazade, on the other hand, rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay. My bad. Continue, please." He still could not imagine a female warrior like Kurapika crying for the life of his, though.

_[And Kuroro was there. Actually, I was just passing by. When she started crying, I think Kuroro looked frightened for a moment!]_ At the last part of the sentence she started going into a fit of giggles. _[You should've seen his face!]_

Lucian was too dumbstruck to respond. Kuroro Lucier, frightened? That notion was absurd in itself—he was not even the least bit nervous when confronting the most infamous assassins in the world working in tandem to off him—but frightened upon seeing his woman crying? Okay, come to think of it, if he was to think hard, it seemed rather plausible an idea since this was _Kuroro Lucifer_ he was talking about: psychologically unsound, remember?

"Oh, by the way, Fino. Since you mentioned Shalnark, it reminds me. How're things between the two of you?"

_[Oh, I gotta go now. Busy, busy, busy.]_

CLICK.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Lucian scowled at his cell phone. Fino always slithered out of the conversation when the topic of her and Shalnark came up. Who would have guessed that she was such a shy, sheepish girl when it came to marriage? Well, maybe he should have guessed.

"_Cred că ar trebui să meargă acolo mai des._ (I think I should go there more often) _Am fost lipsă arată atât de multe de interesant._ (I've been missing so many interesting shows)" Lucian said with a sigh.

Lucian put his phone on his desk, and then smiled. Things sounded really lively there. His eyes wandered to the photograph sitting on his desk again, and Hassamunnin's words rang in his mind:

_You wish you have your own family and you wish you're still a human like them!_

Lucian narrowed his eyes. He took the photograph and brought it closer to his face. The photograph of the weirdest family on the surface of Earth, consisting of individuals with odd predispositions—but the most important thing about them was: their understanding with each other.

He had always been afraid of forgetting how it felt to be a human, and so he kept on observing humans as long as he could remember. In his long years of observing humans, he had seen many groups of people—family, couples, siblings, brethrens—breaking apart in conflicts. Many of those conflicts were because of lack of understanding and acceptance of each other, and the lack of chemistry between them. Many people forced others to change the way they wanted them to. It was a folly.

Kuroro and Kurapika knew that they were different in many things, and they left it as it was without trying to change the others. They accepted the others as whatever they were, period. Like in a dance, they acted accordingly in synchronisation with their understanding of their partner.

Oh, of course they fought verbally. The scariest thing about their verbal fight was that sometimes they looked more like they were doing lawyers-fight in a court hearing. More often than not, he could not even comprehend what they were arguing about.

Was Lucian envious of them? Was he jealous of them?

Yes.

However, perhaps it was uncalled for. He had been there since sometime near the beginning of their Hassamunnin-fiasco (as Kurapika sometimes termed it). He had been with them from start until now. He had his parts of helping them (and getting them into troubles as well). Would it be presumptuous of him to call himself part of this odd family?

He hoped not.

Had Phoenix been there to tell him her reading of his future, she would have told him that in the months and years to come, he would be included in the photograph of that 'family'.

"Right! I'm gonna make a kind of solvent for that permanent marker incident, and then pay them a surprise visit!" He suddenly declared enthusiastically to Scheherazade as he put the photograph on his desk; on a spot where he could look at it anytime.

"Well…" Scheherazade continued with her tune ceaselessly. "I hope it goes well. Unlike the last time…"

Lucian froze when he was about to take his jacket from the coat stand. He gave Scheherazade a sideways 'now you are part of the 'bully Lucian' group, huh?' glance/frown, but she chuckled pleasantly at the response she got.

"Hmph. Well, see you sometimes." Lucian waved a hand carelessly and skipped his way out of the room.

Although the owner of the room had departed, the guest remained there. She kept playing with her Oub, her mind wandering together with her tunes. She closed her eyes, immersing herself in the world of tales in her mind.

Tales…Stories…They were her realm, her heart, her domain, her kingdom. Her self…

"Lucian, I weave not only the stories of humans, but ours as well…" She smiled gently. "Yours included."

Scheherazade's fingers were still plucking the strings of the Oub skilfully as she got up and strolled towards the open window of Lucian's office.

"I know your thoughts, I know your feelings. I hear them. I feel them." She inhaled the fragrance of night and closed her eyes, recalling the tales of Lucian's inner self. "You are lonely. You are sad. You love humanity, you long to be part of them."

Scheherazade turned her head to look at the photograph sitting on Lucian's desk. In her eyes, they were an awkward family. For those who did not truly know them well, they would call Kuroro Lucifer and Kurapika Kuruta as a mismatch. She turned to face the darkened sky of the night beyond the window.

"You are part of their stories, Lucian. We all are. But you have always been, and will always be." She whispered to the night.

Suddenly, the window opened by itself, and Scheherazade leapt. She stood on the windowsill, bracing the dark yet gentle world outside.

"Our stories never end even after death. They continue on, passed down to the next generations, into unending legacies. Stories after stories these hands have weaved and this mouth has sung. One stumbles upon another, one crosses path with another. Futures are built upon the clashing paths of individual stories, entwining their destinies."

She leapt from the window, but her feet never touched the ground, nor were the grasses disturbed in any kind.

She could see it; far away, in the middle of a mountain, in a little town, in a small house, in its kitchen. They were there, the two of them. The lamp was off, and the silvery moonlight illuminated their silhouettes. She was sitting in the chair; holding a mug in her hands, while he stood next to her; leaning against the kitchen counter. They were talking softly, and suddenly her eyes flashed scarlet. He chuckled, said something, and then bent down to her. Their silhouette collided, and then the moon hid behind the clouds.

The night was still. The wind blew, carrying soft, gentle words that danced with a certain melody.

_Their stories still have not ended._

*** FIN ***

* * *

_**Author's FINAL Note:**_

_AAAAAAND this is it. The End. Fin. ^o^ That 'twins' part at the end, it's a gift for my friend who has moved to Japan and settled there with her husband ^^ I know some of you may go !O.O! but please don't flame me. Things can happen and you never know… *run away and hide somewhere*_

_I especially thank those reviewers who had taken their time to give me such encouraging reviews. Even those who didn't review, it's okay I'm not mad at you *bashed in the head* _

_ANYWAY, it's been so long and I'm truly happy that I can finish this series until this far. I won't be able to do this without YOU guys. My deepest gratitude!_

_Feel free to tell me or ramble at me about how and what you feel about this series. Good thing, bad thing, about Kuroro or Kurapika or Lucian or Meta or Bia or Anansi or whoever else mentioned in this series: basically EVERYTHING. I'd like to hear from you readers, so that the next time I write something else, I can still improve from your inputs. _

_FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART, THANK YOU SO MUCH! *throw confetti, blow the trumpets*_

_**Ps:** I MIGHT post some one-shots under this title, if I get a very good story plot and if I have the TIME ^^_

**_Ps2_****:**_ I did this comic strip for the fight scene of Lucian and Hisoka in DeviantArt. Title is: HxH - Lucian vs Hisoka. Alternatively, you can get the link from my profile page =P_


	30. Christmas Extra: Their Names

_**Disclaimer: **__ Hunter x Hunter ain't mine, but Lucian is MINE! So are Meta and the twins! _

_**Author's Note:**__ Well, a Christmas present for all the readers of 1001 Nights series. Merry Christmas 2011, folks!_

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**Extra**

_**THEIR NAMES**_

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Kuroro Lucifer was not a superstitious man—or rather, it wouldn't be accurate to label him so. After all, how could he not be 'superstitious' when his whole life had been influenced—to one extent and another—by one of the causes of superstitions: mythical creatures. He had been brought up by a Medusa, had been raised in a politically non-existent city, had been trained in a forest full of monsters and whatnots during his teenage, had a close friend who was a full-fledged vampire, had Solomon Ring that could exert absolute command over 72 greater demons—the item that Kurapika had recently dubbed as 'family heirloom'—and had two unicorns living in the 'backyard' of his home.

Basically, he had given up trying to distance himself with anything that had to do with mythical creatures since the unprecedented 'adventure' with Kurapika years ago.

As such, he found himself not too surprised when he had heard of his children's birth dates and the rather obscure significance behind those dates.

He had discovered—quite very late, if he might add—that his first-born son had been born on midnight right between the last day of October and the first day of November. When he heard of the date and timing, the first thing that came to Kuroro's mind was: Samhain. It was an old pagan festival; in which it essentially celebrates the end of harvest by the day, and veneration for the dead in the night. Meta had been born in the midnight.

_Perhaps it explains why he's very perceptive to spirits and the likes…_ He had idly mused at that time.

This time, his twin children were born on the midnight before 23 April. They were born on The Eve of Saint George.

Now, to be fair, not many people might make the connection as he did. Most people would use the so-called civil calendar and so for them this date had no significance whatsoever—they wouldn't draw the connection. However, Kuroro Lucifer wasn't ignorant. He knew that many other calendars existed, and they weren't exactly parallel to each other. Different calendars had their own different special days. One of those calendars bore significance on the night before 23 April.

The Eve of Saint George was the night when all evil things in the world would be in the peak of their power.

Kuroro frankly hadn't really cared if that would mean that his twins were destined to be some villainous characters in the future. With a mother like Kurapika; what with her ridiculously high moral standards and justice-upholding notion of life, there was no way the children could turn out any more evil than the swap-Lucian's-special-sunblock-with-normal-sunblock-and-tell-not-a-soul-about-it-and-push-said-vampire-into-open-unsheltered-space-during-the-brightest-day-of-summer kind of evil. By Kurapika's definition, perhaps it would stretch to join-the-Genei-Ryodan kind of evil, though honestly Kuroro wouldn't mind that the slightest bit as long as the children proved themselves strong enough to be the arsenals of the Spiders (Kurapika would go apoplectic on this, though).

To be brutally honest, the only reason why Kuroro had found out about the significance of this date was because on that precise night, the Solomon Ring had been oddly restless. The God-forsaken ring was always restless, but on that particular night the demons had been noisier than ever. Their whispers were louder than ever, and the dark energy that the ring contained seemed to seethe from it. Kuroro had also sensed a kind of pressure in his head, as if something was trying to overwhelm his mind. He had dismissed the annoying headache, but out of curiosity he had done a quick research on the date of the day. In the next morning, he received a phone call from the hospital.

He had been amused, really. If anything, he rather preferred to believe that this would be the indication that the children were born with such great potential he could hardly wait until the day he could shape them into perfection.

"NO!"

Kuroro stopped just before he turned to the corridor where Kurapika's room was, and promptly decided to overhear the conversation for a while. It seemed to guarantee good entertainment.

"Meta, don't scream your head off. This is the hospital, and your _mamă_ (mother) is resting inside there. But why aren't you letting me in? It's not like I'm going to murder her or something, I just want to vi—"

"No entry for you."

"…Did I do something that pissed you off big time before today?"

"No."

"So why aren't you letting me in, for God's sa—OWW! Bia, did you just electrocute me _again_?"

Kuroro couldn't help but snicker quite indiscreetly as he heard yet another yelp from that insufferable vampire, accompanied by one nasty crackle of electricity that no doubt had been shot by Bia. He knew why both were barring entry into Kurapika's room.

Kurapika had strictly forbidden anyone from seeing her on the day of labour and for the whole next day—strange for normal women, but in Kuroro's opinion it was just very Kurapika-like. In what little understanding he knew of women, they tended to be overly emotional after child-birth, and Kurapika absolutely didn't like being too emotional. While he had understanding of the working of Kurapika's mind, not everyone was as perceptive as he was when it came to the occasionally queer Kuruta.

Especially not Leorio.

The poor doctor had been so excited about the birth that he had attempted to catapult himself into the hospital room where Kurapika had been resting right after the labour—with the sincere intention of congratulating her, as he understood—but instead he almost had his head chewed off by a borderline-livid Meta and his butt fried by an irate Bia before he could even so much as touch the doorknob of her room. Kuroro hadn't been too surprised when he had heard this. Both of them were always over-protective of Kurapika; had always been and would always be. It seemed that; knowing this, Kurapika had purposefully appointed those two as the guardians of her bedroom.

He had known about this incident because the said victim had called him out of the blue and ranted and complained to high-heavens about just how insane Kurapika was. Why the doctor had called HIM, of all people, was beyond Kuroro. Leorio had even expressed his utmost concern that perhaps the exhaustion had screwed Kurapika's brain or something like that, since she had actually; he quoted: "issued order to these two little monsters to ward off everyone else except for the doctors and the nurses from entering her room."

Lucian, being the creature with enhanced senses he was, heard his soft chuckles.

"Lucifer, I know you're there around the corner! Quit sniggering like an idiot and come here! _Fa ceva despre aceste mici prietenilor_! (Do something about these little fiends!)"

"Daddy isn't an idiot, you moron!"

There was the glorious sound of a little foot landing violently on a larger foot, but with considerable force on that stomp. Not to mention that it seemed to be accompanied by an episode of painful grinding.

"OW! _La naiba că doare ca curva, te sperii puţin icre de Iad!_! (That hurt like bitch, you freaking little spawns of Hell)"

"Lucian, I'll appreciate it if you can stop cussing in front of the children. Romanian or not. _These _children learn incredibly fast." Kuroro said smoothly as he made his appearance and walked towards the trio.

"Daddy!"

The corner of his eye twitches ever so slightly. No matter how long and how often he had been called that, he never got used to it. Meta had called out to him in sheer joy, but hadn't moved from his spot like the faithful guard he was. Kuroro had to silently applaud the boy for his improving self-control. At one time Lucian suspected that the boy was suffering from a weird case of ADHD, and sometimes Kuroro had been inclined to agree with that when Meta was being particularly handful.

"Ceh. I don't peg you as the kind who'll give a damn whether your kids cuss like pirates or not."

"Really, Lucian? Really?" Kuroro gave him a bright smile, but the vampire caught the message behind it fast. After all, he had been around Kuroro for quite some time; more than a decade, as it was.

"…Uh. Forget I said that."

"That depends whether they have picked up your habits or not."

He saw Lucian throwing pleading look of 'please do not ever cuss in front of your parents for heaven's sake' at the children, which was responded with an evil grin from both children. Yes, including Bia. Meta's mischievousness had apparently rubbed off on her permanently, though she was more selective on her victims and tended to be mercifully milder with her pranks. There was no such thing with Meta. As things were, Lucian had been unfortunately—and amusingly for Kuroro—tagged as their eternal subject of pranks. Their pranks ranged from harmless to the kind of pranks that made the Devil himself seem mild-mannered—as Lucian had aptly put it. Nobunaga had testified that once he had seen the two 'little demons' (Nobunaga's nickname of fondness for them) pulling pranks on Lucian and he even flinched at the sheer tragedy that Lucian had to go through at that time.

"Meta, Bia."

When Kuroro was close enough to them, Meta tackle-hugged his leg while Bia did the same with his waist. Lucian was wise enough to know not to push his luck and try to slip into the room while the children were preoccupied by Kuroro. Bia's electromagnetic radar was perpetually on, after all. Lucian wouldn't risk having curly singed hair again.

"Keep up the good job." He told them while ruffling both their hair.

"Yes, sir!" Meta saluted him, while Bia wrote the same with her Nen-writing and saluted him all the same.

With that, he proceeded to the door and opened it, eliciting cries of protests and indignation from Lucian.

"Hey, hey! No fair! How come he's allowed in and I'm not—AAAAARGH!"

Kuroro closed the door behind him as he heard the thumbing sound of someone falling to the floor, with the unmistakable smell of singed hair wafting faintly to his nose.

"Lucian's still at it?"

"How long has this been going?"

"A good one hour, I suppose."

"A _good _one hour. And you've been doing nothing but enjoying his torture at the hands of the children? I didn't know you have that streak of sadism in you, Kurapika."

Kuroro said that with a crooked grin as he made his way to the single bed at the other side of the room. Lying on the bed was the blond-haired Kuruta woman; with traces of post-labour exhaustion on her face and a gleam of amusement and something else in those aquamarine eyes. Her blonde hair was a shade darker than before, he vaguely noted. By her bed were two carts carrying a bundle in each.

Kurapika snorted at his comment.

"I recall _someone_ telling me that there's no point worrying about whether Lucian will die or not, since he's just like a cockroach that won't die even when the sky falls unto him. Besides, it's his own fault for not listening to Meta."

"And a few-hundred-years-old vampire is supposed to listen to a six-years-old little boy?"

Kurapika shot him an all-too-familiar glare.

"I won't hold it against you, though. I have to admit that it's too entertaining to just listen to the procession out there." Kuroro said with placating hands raised, while listening to another commotion going on outside that was soon followed by a passing nurse scolding Lucian severely for disturbing other patients. "Although I believe that Lucian hasn't given up yet because he's simply keeping them company."

"I'm aware of that." She said softly as she reclined further to the bed with a sigh. "Goodness knows what Meta tends to pull off when he's bored out of his mind."

"Indeed." Kuroro agreed with a low chuckle as he walked towards the two carts by her bedside.

He could feel Kurapika's eyes on him as he stood by the carts and bent over them. One look, and he could see the stark difference between the two children. To his amusement, one of them had his exact colouring. However, the other one had bright russet hair. Kuroro raised an eyebrow at this; well, that colouring could've come from either his heritage or Kurapika's, though Kuroro had the feeling it was highly unlikely that any of his ancestors had such vivid colouring. Most likely from Kurapika's side, then.

As if taking her cue, Kurapika answered his unspoken question. "My grandmother had russet hair."

"I see." He hummed as he reached out and stroke the baby's thin hair. It felt like Kurapika's, only much silkier.

"You name them."

That, he hadn't expected. In his surprise, Kuroro looked up and stared into Kurapika's aquamarine eyes. They held the eye contact for a while; Kuroro searching for any explanation behind those eyes and Kurapika simply studying his reaction. After a while, Kurapika gave the 'go ahead' shrug. At this, he looked back down to studying the newborns; a scintilla of grateful smile obscured from Kurapika's line of sight.

Kurapika had been gracious. Very much so, if he had to confess. He understood that naming was a very important ritual; Ishtar had taught him so during the early days of his studentship under her. Perhaps Kurapika had thought it fair that he named them, seeing that she had named Meta without consulting him first. She had even estranged the boy from him for a good four years.

So Kuroro observed the twins. He started with the girl, the one with the russet hair. He reached out to touch her hair again, and the moment the contact was made, the girl fluttered open her eyes. Kuroro found himself staring into a pair of the brightest emerald green eyes. Kuroro blinked; he really had never seen that kind of vivid green colour for eyes before. The infant raised its curled fist as if reaching out for his face.

"Sarai." He said as he touched the curled fingers of his newborn daughter; which was responded by an uncurling of those stubby fingers and a grasping at his finger.

"Sarai?" Kurapika raised an eyebrow. With her job scope, Kurapika was obliged to learn about some old languages, and she knew the meaning of that name. "I hope that's not an early warning that you're going to spoil her rotten."

"Am I the type who spoils children rotten?" Kuroro looked up from under the curtain of his bangs and smirked at Kurapika.

"In the weirdest way possible. You do."

Kuroro chuckled. Kurapika always had another whole set of definition of many things when it came to him. Nevertheless, she had been rather quite accurate. 'Sarai' was an ancient name that could be interpreted as 'my princess'. She was the first daughter—Bia had been adopted, and thus not counted—after all.

Gently prying his finger from Sarai's clutch—already she was clingy—Kuroro turned to the boy. One look at him, and a word appeared in Kuroro's mind:

"Noah."

Kurapika went silent and regarded him with a rather questioning look. She knew the etymology and reason behind that name, but she didn't quite understand why he had chosen that name out of so many that was available.

"…Why?" She finally asked.

"To be honest, that name just appeared in my mind." Kuroro shrugged, and then added after a moment of contemplation: "His colouring…is too much like Ishtar's."

Kuroro's voice was quiet. He had bidden his farewell to his surrogate mother long ago, and had come to terms with it in his own ways. However, it seemed that the figure of that woman just wouldn't leave him alone. It wasn't exactly a bad thing. Perhaps the name 'Noah' was really suitable, after all.

"Now that you mention it…" Kurapika muttered as she observed her second son closer.

At that very moment, the baby; Noah, decided to open his tiny eyes and stared directly into his mother's scrutinising eyes. Kurapika then saw it; those obsidian like eyes, very much like Kuroro's but were much closer to the deceased former Lady of Ryuusei-gai.

"Even the eyes." Kuroro said, and turned to look into Kurapika's aquamarine eyes. "I won't be surprised if his eyes don't turn scarlet."

He had thought that she would be upset, so he was rather surprised to see her shrugging her shoulders in slight noncommittal way.

"It's fine. Even if he doesn't have Scarlet Eyes, that doesn't mean I'm going to discriminate or disown him. It's not a sin. Just genetics."

Kuroro studied her expressions and body language. She hadn't lied when she said all those; his eye that had been bequeathed with the power of Isthar's True Vision hadn't tingled. She was being honest. There wasn't even the faintest hint of frown on her tired face, and her body was as relaxed as it could be as she reclined on the hospital bed. Both of them were quiet for a while, before the silence was broken by Kurapika.

"You have something in mind?"

Kuroro turned and studied the twins; both who were now awake and were looking at their parents with their big, inquisitive eyes. He could see that Sarai would probably end up like Meta; a bundle of excessive energy, while Noah would probably more subdued. He could very much imagine Noah growing up into a cryptic person much like Ishtar had been.

"The date of their birth." He finally said at length.

Kurapika raised an eyebrow.

"What of it?"

"It's the Eve of Saint George."

Kurapika was quiet. She was well-versed in legends and myths; that was part of her job to know all those. She definitely had heard of the Eve of Saint George. Kurapika averted her eyes and stared to the white, pristine ceiling of the hospital. Kuroro shoved his hands to the pockets of his pants and observed her.

"I feel that you should know that." He said quietly.

"Well, at least now I know what to look out for in the future." Kurapika turned from the ceiling and gave him a _teasing_ look. "Are you implying that they're cursed?"

"Personally, no. It depends on perspective, though, I suppose. What do _you_ think?" After all, Kuroro knew that Kurapika tended to be more sensitive about this kind of thing.

Kurapika snorted, as if Kuroro had just insulted her.

"Cursed or not, I don't care."

Kuroro understood that when it came to anyone that bore the blood of the Kuruta tribe, she would love them unconditionally; especially when they were her own flesh and blood. She would disregard and accusations and foreshadowing. Any person with a drop of Kuruta blood in their veins were equivalent to treasure for her—perhaps to the point of unhealthy obsession, if he might add. Fortunately, there hadn't been anyone else with Kuruta blood except for the children, and Kuroro didn't think that he would be too happy with the thought of Kurapika devoting her attention to someone else; fellow tribe-folk or not. Well, he was to blame for that—he was the one who had annihilated the whole tribe, after all, sparing her only by unusual negligence to check the surrounding of the Kuruta Village on his part.

"It doesn't matter." Kuroro agreed as he shifted his weight to one foot and gave Kurapika a smile that he only reserved for her alone.

She hummed in agreement. Silence stretched between them, and they enjoyed the comfortable companionship between them, though the silence was occasionally disturbed by the faint squeaks and complaints that Lucian was making beyond the door of the room as he submitted himself to be the babysitter of the two children. Sometimes Kuroro idly wondered how the young count could be so willing to do so much free work for them when unrequested at all; judging from Kurapika's words earlier, she hadn't asked Lucian to keep the children company at all. He did that on his own volition, and Kuroro knew that Lucian wasn't that dumb not to know that babysitting those two would be equal to certain degree of pain and public embarrassment.

The things Lucian would do to get himself involved into all mess pertaining to his strange family. Kuroro smiled discreetly at this thought.

"Why don't you carry them?" Kurapika suddenly asked.

Kuroro looked up and stared at her. Not many people could read him like open books and Kuroro preferred that to be the status quo, however Kurapika had broken that status and she simply knew where to look for clues. She obviously had seen the reluctance on his face, because she then grinned the devil's grin—one that promised a 'you are not getting away from this, mister.'

"Oh? Afraid now, aren't we?"

"Rather than 'afraid', I'll go with 'unprepared'. Do I look like someone who has had practice on how to carry a fragile infant properly without risking breaking a neck or a limb?" He stated dryly.

"I wouldn't know." She sniffed in amusement, and then moved to get up from the bed.

Her movements were rather sluggish and awkward, but she maintained a degree of fine control on her motoric. Kuroro observed her movements, especially when she bent down to scoop Noah—the one who happened to be nearest to Kurapika—from the cart to her arms. He tried to memorise those movements; the subtlety of the moves of the hands, the wrists, the positions; everything. When Kurapika offered the infant to him, he tried to replicate it.

With little success.

As soon as Noah was in his arms, the infant's face scrunched up in utter discomfort, and it wasn't long before he cried his lungs out. Boy, weren't those a pair of perfectly strong lungs. Kuroro decided then and there that he'd rather hear the death cries of people dying in horrid, gruesome, grotesque death a thousand times over than hearing the cries of a harmless infant—to be specific, _his _infant. Before Kurapika had the time to fix the infant's position in Kuroro's arms, a certain sharp-eared vampire waiting outside the door had reacted far too quickly to certain children's taste.

"What hap—AUGH!"

"Off-limit!"

"Who taught you that move?"

"Daddy."

"…Go figure. And Bia? Stop trying to fry me crisp, for the love of the Lord!"

"Lucian, you're too loud!"

"Look who's talking, runt! Besides, that's one of your little siblings crying. Aren't you worried?"

"Mom and Dad are inside. It's fine."

"…I don't know whether to be impressed by your unflappable faith in your parents, or to dread it, or to pity the world for it. Bia, for the umpteenth time of today, stop calling me Drama-queen! Sheesh."

"Oh, the crying stops."

"Yeah, sure it does, Mister Obvious. OW! What was that for? You're just violent as your mother—OUCH! Bia, flippin' stop that!"

The occupants of the room kept listening to the conversation and the sound effects that followed through the entire conversation. Kurapika had fixed Noah's position in Kuroro's arms and now the infant was snuggling against his chest while staring at his pale face. Kuroro and Kurapika were still looking at the direction of the door.

"Immortal as Lucian is, I think if he's stuck with babysitting them for too long and too often, that immortality is going to really expire one day." Kurapika finally said while shaking her head.

"I concur." Kuroro said with a chuckle.

Kurapika hummed contently, and then picked up Sarai from the cart. She expertly juggled the baby so that Sarai instantly was comfortable in her arms. The infant giggled slightly and then snuggled to her mother's bosom. They stood like that for a while, each holding an infant in their arms. After a while, they switched the infants with quite some fuss from Sarai as she landed in her father's inexperienced arms.

"You'll get used to it." Kurapika said gleefully when Sarai's protest of discomfort had died down.

Kuroro grimaced, but he didn't say anything to that. Instead, he asked:

"So. How long are you going to keep the others out?"

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A few days later when Kurapika had been discharged from the hospital, they returned to their humble home in the little town in the remote mountain. Fino had been so excited about the twins and she couldn't stop gushing over how cute the twins were.

Shalnark, on the other hand, was being mauled and murdered by Fino's parents after the old couple had seen the twins:

"GIVE US OUR GRANDCHILDREN!"

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_**Author's Note: **__Alright, fine. I can't help it. I was tempted. I said I wasn't gonna write about Hunter x Hunter again, but…Oh well. I just love Kuroro and Lucian too much. I don't know if the names are good or not, but I kinda have those names since long time ago._

_Oh, and you should check the meaning behind the name 'Noah'. There's a reason why he's named that. Hopefully you can make the connection (since I can be too cryptic and random with my reasoning) =DDD_


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